Madhya Pradesh: GPS Mandatory In Paddy Transport To Curb Fraud, Balaghat Officers Under Scanner

Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh): The Civil Supplies Corporation Headquarters has directed that from the Kharif marketing year 2025-26, only GPS-equipped vehicles will be used for paddy procurement and foodgrain transport, in the wake of a Rs. 43 crore paddy transportation scam was recently unearthed in Jabalpur.

Managing Director Anurag Verma has instructed district managers to ensure AIS 140 GPS devices are installed in all trucks, integrated with the ISCMS portal and mobile app, enabling real-time monitoring at district, regional, and headquarters levels through the command center.

Transport payments will only be released after GPS installation and software linkage.

While these orders have now been reinforced, Balaghat’s Civil Supplies Corporation had already issued similar instructions to contracted rice millers in March 2025, warning that paddy supply and rice deposit work would not proceed without GPS-equipped vehicles.

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However, records show that trucks without GPS were still used, allowing some millers to sell supplied paddy illegally and replace it with old rice from other states.

An RTI query on August 1, 2025, revealed that the district office could not provide details on which officers verified or re-verified GPS data during paddy receipt and rice deposit.

This indicates possible collusion between officials and rice millers, effectively sidelining headquarters’ orders and enabling black marketing.

Officials said that the new GPS mandate aims to plug such loopholes and prevent future fraud in paddy procurement and distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS).