Millers hoard rice for profit

Hyderabad: Irregularities in the procurement of levy rice from farmers in Telangana have been detected and sources say that a few officials of the Civil Supplies Corporation and millers have colluded to deny the Minimum Support Price to farmers.

Anticipating a huge shortfall in food grain production this year due to heavy damage to the Kharif and Rabi crops this year, millers have been resorting to hoarding rice meant for the public distribution system (PDS), say sources.

Inquiries by the civil supplies department in Nalgonda district revealed grave anomalies in the quantum of rice procured by the Civil Supplies Corporation from farmers and the rice bought by the millers for milling.

In Nalgonda district alone, a difference of 4 lakh metric tonnes was found between the rice procured and purchased.

Millers had supplied 2.20 lakh MT of raw rice and 50,000 MT boiled rice to the Civil Supplies Corporation and Food Corporation of India during the Kharif season.

For this, the millers would have to purchase 17 lakh MT of paddy, do the milling and supply to the corporation and FCI. However, inquiries revealed that the millers had purchased only 12.90 lakh MT, showing a deficit of 4 lakh MT.

It came to the notice of the government that the millers had recycled the PDS rice illegally and sold the same to the corporation.

Moreover, the total rice production in Nalgonda district in Kharif was only 8 lakh MT, raising questions of how they purchased 12.90 lakh MT in the first place.

The government has been implementing the “Mana Biyyam” scheme in Nalgonda, Khammam, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal districts, wherein the rice produced in each of these districts should be utilised in the same districts for distribution through PDS.

As per norms, the public sector undertakings have to procure 25 per cent of levy rice from the millers but there are complaints that it bought as much as 50 per cent.

Similar complaints came from other districts, following which the government asked the civil supplies department to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into these and find the facts.