Nagpur, May 8 - A Parliamentary Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, headed by Congress MP from city Vilas Muttemwar, has recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and malpractices in the national and regional commodity exchanges across the country.

The standing committee, which placed its 18th report in the Parliament last week, said that those powerful traders, who indulged in malpractices, neither have any fear of the Forward Market Commission (FMC), nor are they bothered by the fine that can be imposed upon them.

"Therefore, The committee recommended that the FMC should seriously consider that cases of malpractices noticed in the national and regional commodity exchange should be handed over to the CBI for proper and thorough investigation, which will help in bringing offenders to justice," former Union Minister Muttemwar told PTI.

Sources close to the standing committee said that the alleged irregularities and malpractices is to the tune of nearly Rs 4,000 crore.

Muttemwar, who is also the AICC general secretary, said that despite the regulatory mechanism in the FMC in place, there were reported cases of trading irregularities and market manipulations.

The standing committee received complaints in December 2010 regarding the irregularities in National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE), Ahmedabad and was investigated and certain malpractices of the anchor promoter of NMCE were detected. PTI