BARA, AUGUST 21 Police today destroyed 830 sacks of inedible pulses in Bara. The sub-standard food item was confiscated around four months ago, after the police found out that it was being distributed to the families affected by lockdown in Kalaiya sub-metropolis. The pulses stored in a cold storage were destroyed in the presence of Chief District Officer Rudra Prasad Pandit, SP Krishna Pageni and local journalists in Bagaban of Kalaiya sub-metropolis-14. After finding that the pulses were being distributed as relief to lockdown-affected families in Basatpur of Kalaiya-20 earlier, police had intercepted the food item being distributed and sealed the cold storage facility of Rangapur from where the pulses were supplied. Following the complaints regarding distribution of rotten pulses, police, under the direction of CDO Pandit, had seized the pulses and sent the sample for a test at the Food Technology and Quality Control Office. The administration had initiated action by sealing Yadav Cold Store that was operated by Kalaiya Mayor Rajesh Raya Yadav and his relative in Rangapur of Kalaiya sub-metropolis-7, after the test report of the Food Technology and Quality Control Office corroborated the substandard quality of the food item. Earlier, though police had arrested the mayor and six other persons for their involvement in the distribution of the substandard pulses, they were later released on bail. A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 22, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.