Overview
- Police in Balaghat registered an FIR and set up a Special Investigation Team after irregular consignments were flagged, and investigators have seized 17 trucks, recorded more than 50 statements and made arrests.
- The Food Corporation of India said the active alleged diversion under probe is 490 bags (242.50 quintals), valued at about Rs 5.63 lakh, and called reports of a nearly 5 lakh tonne misappropriation factually incorrect.
- Notices have been issued to 56 rice mills and 22 ethanol plants across multiple districts as officials match FCI dispatch records, transport logs and custom-milling receipts with ethanol production data.
- The inquiry is also probing why fortified rice meant for nutrition programmes was supplied to distilleries and whether stock-rotation, warehouse acceptance and monitoring rules failed or were bypassed.
- The larger Rs 1,160 crore figure cited in some reports reflects the total volume legitimately issued to distilleries under the Ethanol Blending Programme and not the value of the specific alleged diversion being investigated.