It?s true it happened over a period of eight years, as compared to less than a year for the 2G scam, but the Uttar Pradesh food scam is being touted as India?s biggest. Ever. As compared to Raja?s Rs 1.76 lakh crore, the UP food scam is said to be worth Rs 2 lakh crore between 2002-03 and 2009-10.
This is a wild overestimate. In this period, the total grain, both wheat and rice, given to UP was 38.12 million tonnes?this is for grain to be sold from ration shops as well as grain given for, say, the midday meal scheme. Assume today?s Minimum Support Price of Rs 11, this works out to a total of under Rs 42,000 crore. Given the scam is supposed to be about the grain sold through ration shops (12.69 million tonnes), the size of the scam will be Rs 14,000 crore. And that?s assuming that all the grain was siphoned off, something that no one has alleged so far. Since the MSP was much lower in the earlier part of the decade, the ?scam? gets even smaller.
Factor in the fact that the ?scam? is spread over 31 districts and over 200 officials, and the investigation looks like it?s going nowhere from the start. Little wonder that the CBI was reluctant to investigate the matter, but now has to following the Allahabad High Court judgment.