Fodder scam update: Rs 16 lakh worth of mustard oil for polishing buffalo horns

Lalu Prasad Yadav

Former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal founder Lalu Prasad Yadav is cooling his heels in the jail,  after being convicted in the fodder scam that surfaced in the 1990s. But a massive Rs 658 crore of payouts in scam-related cases is still pending ratification by the legislature, since CBI courts in Ranchi and Patna are yet to give their verdicts in these cases, the Nitish Kumar-led government discovered recently.

The revelation was made in the monsoon session of the Bihar legislature, during a discussion on the Excess Expenditure Appropriation Bill, 2019. It was learnt in the course of the deliberations that a huge amount of money was allegedly laundered by Bihar’s animal husbandry department on various bizarre pretexts.

For instance, the department authorities bought 49,950 litres of mustard oil between 1990 to 1996, at a cost of Rs 16 lakh, ostensibly to 'polish' buffalo horns. Dr Januel Bhengraj, who was the then manager of Hotwar dairy farm, allegedly submitted fake bills to misappropriate the funds, in collusion with other senior officers and top politicians, reported News 18.

Another big spending was for the procurement of fodder. Against a requirement of fodder worth Rs 10.53 crore, the quantity procured was worth Rs 253.33 crore. Moreover, as per convention, 10% of yellow maize is added to other ingredients in the fodder for the benefit of lactating and meat-producing animals. However, in six districts of Bihar, the procurement was to the tune of 115 times the requirement, at a cost of Rs 154.72 crore.

In a similar manner, almond oil cakes, which are also a cattle fodder supplement, were purchased in excess, burning a hole of Rs 7.69 crore in the department’s exchequer.

These new facts related to the fodder scam were produced by state finance minister and deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, in the House.

Explaining what happened in the 1990s, he said funds for perceived extra expense are either taken from the state’s contingency fund or via supplementary budgets, but this procedure was not followed by the Lalu Prasad government.

“The then government looted public money by making excessive withdrawals above and beyond the budgetary allocations, using fake bills,” Modi said.

The annual outlay of the animal husbandry department under the RJD government reveals a story of organised plundering, he claimed, adding that it was made possible by slowly increasing the budget allocated for the department and through excessive withdrawals on the basis of forged bills.

The scam continued for more than 14 years, and some of the expense claims were outright bizarre, such as an instance in which bulls were "ferried from Ranchi on a scooter", as per CAG reports. Many such instances of cattle transport existed only on paper.

The money paid out against these claims were deposited in benami (fake) accounts in various banks.