Raid on rice millers over paddy bungling

MALKANGIRI:The civil supply officials on Wednesday raided several godowns of 11 rice mills across the district and seized huge quantities of paddy bags stocked illegally. It was found that the millers had stocked crops in excess of targeted procurement.

Earlier, farmers had alleged before the district administration that the millers engaged at the mandis used to cut down up to 1  kg of paddy per quintal for fair average quality (FAQ) testing while buying the produce from them during the procurement. Acting on the allegations, Collector K Sudarshan Chakravarthy had formed a squad to conduct raids on the rice mills across the district. Recently, the team also conducted raids on 21 rice mills across the district.

Farmers’ leaders alleged that the paddy growers in the district have incurred losses due to the nexus between unscrupulous officials of the civil supplies department and millers. Most of the millers have stored excess paddy procured illegally from the mandis. But the team could not unearth it as the millers were informed about the raid by some civil supply officials, they said.When contacted, District Civil Supply Officer Abhimanyu Mohanty said the team is yet to submit the report of seizure.

The exact amount of excess paddy seized from the millers will be known after the report is submitted. These 11 millers are not in a position to maintain the stock register, while the LAMPS, which purchased paddy and handed it over to millers, have not submitted acceptance note. An additional procurement target of 2,58,000 quintals has been fixed after achieving the initial target of 5,52,000 quintals of paddy. So far, 5,97,000 quintals have already been procured, he added.

Meanwhile, locals and some farmers’ organisations have urged the Collector to reconstitute the squad alleging that some officials of civil supply department are having nexus with the millers.  They demanded surprise raids on the rice mills.