Chief Secretary MS Rao has been tasked with finding suitable retired High Court judges who could possibly conduct an inquiry into the so-called rice scam in the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) run by the Social Welfare Department.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today informed that once the single-member committee is set up it will have three months to report its findings.
Assam Police had seized one lakh sacks of rice, at least tens of thousands of which reportedly belonged to Meghalaya under the SNP from a private warehouse in the neighbouring state last month.
The opposition Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is a part of the governing coalition, have since demanded that an independent inquiry be conducted.
It has been alleged that the rice was being diverted away from the scheme to be sold on the open market, though the Meghalaya government has denied that this was the case.
