Farmers protest smuggling of Bihar rice into Punjab
In a case of smuggling of rice from Bihar into Punjab, a rice mill in Mansa district has been found to be getting cheaper rice from the eastern state to be given to the FCI as rice shelled from the paddy bought from Punjab mandis and allocated to the mill for shelling.
Had one of the trucks carrying the rice from Bihar not met with an accident yesterday and caught the attention of villagers who are members of the Punjab Kisan Union, the clandestine business would have gone unnoticed. Even after bringing it to light, farmers of the area had to sit on a dharna to pressurise the government officials to act.
Simranjit Singh Kulrian, a Punjab Kisan Union activist, who led the protest by farmers against the mill and demanded action, told The Tribune that four truckloads of rice were already inside the mill when the fifth truck was apprehended.
Information gathered shows that the consignment of five truckloads of rice was dispatched from Bihar for the rice mill at Dharampura village near Bareta in Mansa district. Though the officials of Markfed, Mandi Board and Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs are still investigating the incident and a physical verification of the stock being done by Markfed officials, it is suspected that the rice mill at Dharampura was just the first point of delivery, and it was to be further distributed to other mills, which would then pass it on to the FCI as the rice milled from paddy allocated to them in the last paddy season.
Source Link: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/farmers-protest-smuggling-of-bihar-rice-into-state-607508
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