Telangana: PDS rice becomes lucre for all, including beneficiaries

Hyderabad: Police personnel are busting at least one case of PDS rice racket every day in Telangana. There are a number of middlemen involved in smuggling of this rice, which involves high profits. The PDS rice is priced low, as it is for distribution to people below poverty line (BPL) through the Public Distribution System (PDS) network of civil supplies department.

As per the scheme, 5 kg of rice at the rate of Rs 1 a kg is given to each person of a BPL family, which is considered as living under poverty line. However, it is learnt, most of this is being sold to middlemen for prices ranging from Rs 6-Rs 14.

For instance on Tuesday, Hayathnagar police of Rachakonda Commissionerate seized 25,000 kg (25 tonnes) of PDS rice. Assuming 5 kg per person, it is clear that around 5,000 people have sold their rice, as they are not consuming this rice themselves. This is just one case.

Even on Tuesday, the KPHB police of the Cyberabad commissionerate on Tuesday intercepted a lorry (TS 12U A 5840) that was illegally transporting 19 tonnes of PDS rice illegally from Kukatpally to Karnataka. A person Mohammed Nusrath Ullah (35), resident of Balanagar, has been arrested and sent to judicial custody.

Lakhs of beneficiaries are selling their quota of rice. "Investigation into organised racket of PDS rice reveals middlemen buying the rice from beneficiaries at around Rs 10 a kg, who sell the same to rice millers, who again sell it to civil supplies department. This has been causing a huge loss to the government exchequer," a police officer pointed out on condition of anonymity.

Illegal PDS rice racket is a double-edged sword, as real beneficiaries are losing their quota. It is also a loss to the government, as it is again buying the same PDS rice it has sold through the ration shops.

There are also cases of PDS rice being re-processed in mills and smuggled to other states as far as Gujarat and neighbouring states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

In the Hayathnagar case, main accused Aitha Krishna purchased PDS rice from beneficiaries at Rs 9 per kilogram in Telangana state. He transported it to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for selling it to poultry farm owners in Kakinada and other regions at Rs 25 per kilogram. In another case busted by Hyderabad Task force team on June 22, police seized 165 quintals of rice.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, an official of the civil supplies department said, "Our job is to ensure that PDS rice is transported to dealers' shops and distributed properly to beneficiaries. What the beneficiaries do with the rice is an individual thing, over which we have no control”.

PDS rice seizure timeline

June 7: Malkajgiri police of seize 2,050 kg rice.
June 10: Malkajgiri police seize 1,000 kg.
June 13: Siddipet commissionerate police seize 25,000 kg.
June 19: KPHB police seize 23,140 kg.
June 22: Siddipet commissionerate police seize 7,000 kg.
June 21: North Zone Task Force seizes 16,500 kg.
June 27: Hayathnagar police seizes 25,000 kg.
June 29: KPHB police seize 19,000 kg.