Police to probe own department over canteen supply scam

Investigations have revealed that superintendents of police of the respective districts and commissioners of police in cities, who are the field level purchase officers, have allegedly joined hands with dubious companies and purchased products that have no demand in the market. 

There are 47 police canteens in different parts of the state, and more than half the stock intended for sale through these canteens has been dumped in the godowns of these facilities across the state. 

According to highly placed sources, corruption has been rampant for many years; it has come to light only recently. 

Sources said that some senior officials, stationed at the DGP’s office, appear to be involved as they are signatories in the agreements with some dubious and relatively unknown companies. 

“Once the agreement is signed, the field level purchase officials are supposed to identify the demand for those goods in different localities and send them to those areas. The decision to buy items for the canteen is based on what is needed and will be purchased by policemen. However, these officials have made bulk purchases for products that have no demand, and also those made by dubious Chinese companies and dumped them in the godown, causing losses to the tune of several crores of rupees to the exchequer,” a senior police official told DT Next. 

However, it is not just items that are not in demand. The investigation revealed that agreements have also been entered into with multinational electronic companies to push their expensive appliances through police canteens. 

“This forces low-earning police families to buy very expensive products, even though similar, affordable products made by other reputed companies are available in the market,” said an officer talking about the racket. 

Sources said that these irregularities were brought to light by a senior police official, who recently took charge of the wing. 

The officer is also investigating the officials who are involved in the scam and he is tracing the bribes and commissions that have been received by all the officials involved. 

Immediate steps are being taken to curb these corrupt practices. A centralised server is being readied so that every purchase and sale in all these 47 canteens could be monitored on a day-to-day basis.