Telangana Congress president, A. Revanth Reddy has demanded the Union Minister, G. Kishan Reddy to order an inquiry by the CBI into the role of the Chief Minister, K. Chandrashekhar Rao and other TRS leaders in the alleged scam in the Custom Milling Rice (CMR) procurement.
In a letter to the Union Minister, he alleged irregularities in the paddy procurement and the supply of the CMR to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) by the state government. Important leaders of the ruling TRS party had joined hands with rice millers and indulged in the procurement scam running into hundreds of crores, he claimed.
He said the Union Minister should be aware of the recent field level inspections conducted by the FCI officials from March 22 to 24 and the shocking details that came to the fore. The inspection was related to the paddy stocks belonging to 2021-21 and 2021-22 rabi seasons
Mr. Revanth Reddy claimed that FCI officials found 4,53,896 bags of paddy allotted by the state government under CMR was missing from the godowns. The market value of it was around ₹45 crores and the total quantity of the paddy was ₹2,26,948 quintals.
Reminding the statement of Mr. Kishan Reddy that the state government had not yet supplied 8.34 Lakh metric tonnes of paddy to them so far, he said the doubts raised by the minister have turned out to be real following the inquiry of the FCI officials. Referring to the findings of the FCI officials, he claimed that a scam worth ₹ 400 crores would come to the fore if the inspection of all the 3,200 rice mills was taken up by the FCI officials.
Despite these facts, why is the Union Minister silent and why was the Centre not ordering an inquiry into the scam while exhibiting an acrimonious relationship with the TRS led state government in public? he asked. ‘Is someone stopping the Minister to enquire into this scam,” he asked.
