The food scam in Uttar Pradesh could well turn out to be the mother of all scandals and indications are that it could well be worth Rs 2 lakh crore. Here is a timeline of the scam.
Nov 2004 | Prashant Chaturvedi, principal secretary, food and civil supplies, seeks information from the railways about loading of rakes for transporting foodgrain to Bangladesh & some other foreign countries
Dec 2004 | Railways provide a list of districts and stations that handled grain being transported
to Bangladesh. The list makes it apparent that a number of railway rakes were loaded in the districts, even though no such government supply was in place
2005 | Authorities were provided with names of officers, including SPS Solanki, DM, Lakhimpur Kheri and others against whom departmental action had been started for their alleged involvement in the food scandal
2006 | Mulayam Singh Yadav government hands over the probe to economic offences wing (EOW). The EOW starts probe and lodges over 50 cases in Ballia district alone
June 2007 | Mayawati after taking over as CM, hands over investigations now spanning 54 districts of the state to a special investigation team (SIT)
Sept 2007 | UP government acknowledges heavy losses on the basis of the SIT report
Dec 2007 | The Maya govt recommends a CBI probe in the food scam case
2008 | CBI takes up a limited number of cases in just three districts. Vishwanath Chaturvedi moves a PIL in Supreme Court seeking a faster investigation. Supreme Court sends the case back to the Allahabad high court
Dec 3, 2010 | Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court asks the CBI to probe the entire scandal