HYDERABAD : The stern warning issued by the Congress government to millers over delivery of custom milled rice (CMR) seems to be working wonders.
The millers, who used to avoid handing over the rice during the BRS regime, have delivered 56,000 metric tonnes (MT) of CMR to the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
After procuring paddy from the farmers at minimum support price (MSP), the state government gives it to rice millers to process paddy into custom milled rice.
The compounding charges are paid to the millers for processing the rice. But the millers have allegedly been diverting the paddy given to them and selling them illegally.
However, after Congress came to power, Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy has given a stern warning to rice millers after conducting a series of review meetings on the stock and finances of the department as well as Civil Supplies Corporation.
This has prompted movement in the millers. In a span of two months, the rice millers delivered 14.5 LMT of CMR to the FCI as against 24.5 LMT they delivered between October 2022 to November 2023.
In the last three years, the rice millers didn’t deliver the rice before the deadline. This has led to additional burden on the state government, leading to piling up of interest on the principal loan amounts, sources said.
After the Civil Supplies Commissioner post was filled with a senior IPS officer, DS Chauhan, the department took the help of police officials to address the issue, which led to the rice millers delivering the rice before the deadline.