Bhadrak, April 22: The Bhadrak district administration has seized 123 quintals of wheat — meant for children and lactating women under the Integrated Child Development Scheme — from a private godown where a self-help group had illegally stored it.

A joint team, consisting of officers of the district social welfare, civil supplies and police departments led by Tihidi block development officer, confiscated the total consignment and shifted it for storage in the godown of the civil supplies department.

District civil supplies officer of Bhadrak Dibakar Barik said: “The self-help group is supposed to have a stock of 80 quintals of wheat, according to the record with them. But on verification, it was found that the group had 203 quintals. They could not justify the excess stock.”

Shree Ganesh, the self-help group operating at Tihidi, was entrusted with the job to provide nutritious food to pregnant women, adolescent girls and children of nine gram panchayats of the block.

Additional district social welfare officer Kamalakanta Behera said: “The group was supposed to distribute chhatua (mixture of wheat and ground nut powder).”

“After verification, 123 quintals of excess wheat was found from the group’s possession. Detailed inquiry is in progress,” he said.

After learning about the illegal stocking of wheat, local people had surrounded the godown till the raiding team arrived. They alleged that the group was trying to smuggle out the wheat.

A month ago, vigilance officials had trapped the child development project officer of the same block while she was accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a self-help group to clear its bill.

Bhadrak district collector Laxminarayan Mishra said: “The detailed report is awaited from the sub-collector. On receipt of the report, suitable action would be taken against the self-help group.”