Rice mills in ten districts diverted PDS rice stocks
HYDERABAD: Civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar said that the state government would stop allotment of paddy stocks to rice mills in the ongoing rabi season if they had indulged in irregularities and defaulted on handing over stocks to the Food Corporation of India in the previous seasons.
He said that during inspections, civil supplies officials found that rice mills in ten districts —Suryapet, Nalgonda, Wanaparthy, Medak, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Siricilla, Peddapalli and Jagtial — indulged in largescale irregularities.
The government would form special task forces to recover rice stock arrears from these mills, he told the media.
The minister announced rewards to citizens who alert officials on millers selling rice stocks in the open market, which is banned, or diverting rice stocks meant for PDS. The identity of informants would be kept confidential.
Stating that the paddy production in Telangana had witnessed a manifold increase due to the pro-farmer policies of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Kamalakar said, “The paddy production was 24 lakh tonnes in 2014 which have now increased to 141 lakh tonnes. While paddy production has witnessed a six-fold increase in the last nine years, the milling capacity had only doubled. Due to this, we are facing delays in milling.
He said the government was forced to allocate additional paddy stocks to rice mills for milling. A few errant millers were exploiting this situation, he said.
The government is taking stringent measures to recover rice stocks by invoking the Revenue Recovery Act and collecting a 125 per cent cash penalty from them for the rice stocks that were diverted.
“We have recovered 90 per cent of the stocks from millers and measures are being taken to recover the balance of 10 per cent of stocks,” Kamalakar said.
The minister asked officials to prepare plans to utilise the services of rice mills located in neighbouring states such as Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh to reduce pressure on rice mills in Telangana in the ongoing rabi season as record paddy production is expected.
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