Labourers working at a rice mill on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit: File Photo
hyderabad
The pressure tactics being employed by the Civil Supplies department against rice millers defaulting in supply of custom milled rice (CMR) against the paddy procured and handed over to them is yielding good results with collection of 14.5 lakh tonnes of CMR from them in 50 days till January 27.
With a view to check the irregularities in supply of CMR by the millers against paddy given to them for the purpose and to put an end to inordinate delays, the Civil Supplies department has toughened its stand and is imposing heavy penalties to get what has been due from the millers. According to officials, the millers have been evading supply of 43.73 lakh tonnes of CMR for the 2022-23 Kharif season but they had failed to supply the total quantity for the last 15 months.
The millers had supplied only 24.5 lakh tonnes of CMR from October 2022 to November 2023. But, the tactics employed by the department had forced them to supply 14.5 lakh tonnes of CMR during the 50-day period till January 27 with an instance of supplying 56,000 tonnes of CMR during one of the days. Over the last three years, the millers have consistently missed the deadline for supplying the CMR set by the Food Corporation of India. As a result, the cost has been imposed on the State government, causing financial losses and accumulating debt for the Civil Supplies Corporation each year.
The pressure mounted by the Civil Supplies department was forcing the millers to mill the paddy available with them to supply the required quantity of CMR or going from purchase of paddy on their own to meet the need and supply CMR to the FCI. “Till two months ago, the supply was hardly 6,000 tonnes a day but during the last 50 days it has been about 30,000 tonnes a day on an average,” Commissioner of Civil Supplies D.S. Chauhan said.
The increase in daily supply (handover) of CMR has resulted in collection of 14.5 lakh tonnes during the 50-day period till January 27 with collection of 56,843 tonnes on January 27 alone.
The Commissioner stated that wilful defaulters (rice mills) would not be allowed to supply CMR after the due date and instead, penalty would be collected from them. The focus is on districts with high dues of CMR — Wanaparthy (82,000 tonnes), Nagarkurnool (42,000), Medak (40,000), Kamareddy (37,000), Nirmal (35,000), Jagitial (33,000), and Suryapet and Peddapalli (32,000 tonnes each).
