Sundargarh: Amid all the hullaballoo over the free distribution of rice in Odisha, villagers in the Bonai block of Sundargarh district on Wednesday unearthed a huge quantity of rice buried under the soil in a safety tank behind the Gogua Gram Panchayat office.
The huge stock of buried rice was first detected by some villagers who noticed some rice scattered in the area. When they dug up the area, they were surprised to discover a huge amount of insect-eaten rice buried under the soil and in an adjacent safety tank.
While it is unclear who buried the rice and when it was buried, the incident sparked tension in the area. Many eyebrows have been raised over why such a huge amount of rice was buried underground when the poor are struggling for food grains and political parties are at loggerheads over the free distribution of rice in the state.
Expressing his dismay, a local villager Gouranga Patra said, “I am a daily wage earner and struggle hard to earn two square meals a day. I have not received any rice from the Gram Panchayat for the last year and here a huge amount of rice has been dumped under the soil.”
On the other hand, the Sarpanch of Gogua Gram Panchayat, said, “I had no knowledge that such a huge amount of rice has been buried here. I came to know about it today.”
In the same breath, he added, “No one in the Gram Panchayat has complained to me that he/she did not receive their quota of free rice.”
All said and done, most beneficiaries lamented that the wasted rice could have been distributed among the poor and needy.
Meanwhile, no official comment on the incident could be obtained till the time of filing this report.
