Cuttack, Jan. 27: A week after the state vigilance got a sniff of a huge fraud in supply of dal for midday meals and anganwadis in four districts, a petition has been submitted before the anti-corruption wing for a probe into supply of sub-standard dal in all the 30 districts.

The petition has alleged that inferior, rotten, infected and sub-standard arhar dal, unfit for human consumption, was being supplied for midday meals to schools and anganwadi centres.

“This is being done by suppliers by fabricating documents in nexus with government functionaries in the departments of women and child welfare, food and consumer welfare, Orissa Civil Supply Corporation and the school and mass education at the cost of the lives of lakhs of school-going children,” the petition alleged seeking intervention of the director, vigilance.

Cuttack based advocate Dillip Kumar Mohapatra submitted the petition on Tuesday.

“The petition will be treated on its merit,” director, vigilance, Anup Kumar Patnaik told The Telegraph today.

A week ago, state vigilance sleuths, after simultaneous raids in several places across four districts, had seized incriminating documents and collected samples of sub-standard dal which indicated corruption.

Low quality dal was found to have been procured at exorbitant rates and supplied for the midday meal scheme intended to encourage children to enrol in the schools.

The vigilance sleuths had, during the investigation, traced a supplier who was buying low-quality dal from outside the state at cheaper prices and supplying it as arhar dal, official sources said.

Advocate Mohapatra however, pointed out in his petition that the investigation has been restricted to Balasore, Jajpur, Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts.

The enquiry had not been taken up in other districts. “For the interest of the school-going children, the superintendents of police of all the 30 districts may be directed to register cases in their respective districts and investigate the matter which involved cheating, conspiracy, illegal gain and violation of provisions of the Food Adulteration Act and Prevention of Corruption Act,” the petition said.

Official sources said the vigilance department has been tracking the supply of substandard dal for schoolchildren from last year when it came across stocks of sub-standard dal in Sambalpur district.

Subsequently, it filed a criminal case in this connection. The anti-corruption department had since intensified its investigation and began looking into allegations of supply of dal to non-existent schools and fraud in transportation of the dal for the midday meal scheme.