A physical verification of custom milled rice at major rice mills across the State by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has met with resistance from the State government on the ground that it was causing hurdles to unloading of paddy at the mills with arrival of stock cultivated in the recent rabi peaking.
The physical verification of rice bags was taken up after the FCI detected in March that 4.54 lakh bags of rice valued at ₹83.69 crore went missing from 958 mills.
Sixty-two teams constituted by the FCI took up the inspection at 2,300 mills where rice of rabi last year and kharif this year was stored. However, the Civil Supplies Department of the State government had raised serious objection saying the procurement of rice by millers will be hit due to obstacles to unloading at their godowns. Instead, the department wanted the verification in May-June when the procurement got over. But, the FCI was unrelenting as it was mandatory to count the bags closely.
Civil Supplies Minister G. Kamalakar demanded immediate stop to the verification in the present circumstances though the FCI was empowered to undertake it.
On the other hand, test milling of rice procured in the current rabi was yet to be launched by the State government to determine the quantum of broken rice and raw rice recovered after milling and compensation to be paid to the millers for the former. The compensation part was to be studied by a committee of IAS officers headed by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar. The committee was decided at a meeting of the State Cabinet on April 12.
As the rabi crop yielded a large quantity of broken rice due to higher temperatures during harvest in April-May, the government mandated the committee to study the loss millers would suffer from broken rice. The milling yielded higher percentage of broken rice if the grains were to be converted into raw rice instead of parboiled rice which the FCI had already refused to purchase. The rice millers demanded compensation for every quintal of rice.
The test milling should be taken up not at randomly-selected mills but across the State, taking into account maximum temperatures in local areas and the percentage of broken rice.
Sources said the government deliberately delayed fixing compensation as it was felt that the immediate focus should be on procurement of paddy while payment of compensation could wait till the end of milling.
The Andhra Pradesh government paid a compensation of ₹110 per quintal but the millers of Telangana demanded ₹300 per quintal. However, the Telangana government indicated payment of ₹150 to ₹175 per quintal.
All the mills were set targets for custom milling of rice depending on their milling capacity.
