HYDERABAD: The Food Corporation of India (FCI), which along with the State Civil Supplies authorities conducted inspections at rice mills in March and May this year, has found that as many as 5,05,182 bags of paddy were missing in 102 mills across Telangana. It has also found discrepancies in 492 rice mills with regard to recent Kharif paddy supplied for custom milling.
The FCI authorities have inspected 900 rice mills for Rabi crop 2020-2021 and 2,378 rice mills for Kharif crop 2021-2022 till March 30. In the second phase, the FCI physical verification (PV) teams inspected 517 rice mills for Rabi crop and 1,800 for Kharif crop.
The FCI has sent a list of these rice mills along with the quantum of shortages to the State government with a request to initiate action against the defaulter millers. Interestingly, the FCI authorities have also found excess paddy in 33 rice mills — 17 in March and 16 in May. This implies that several rice millers are playing mischief.
Subsequent to inspections, the FCI stopped collecting custom milled rice as the State government failed to initiate any action against these erring rice mills. The stalemate continues in the State as nearly 90 lakh metric tonnes of paddy and custom milled rice are still lying with the rice millers.Meanwhile, the Civil Supplies Department has submitted proposals to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on how to dispose of these stocks of paddy.