HYDERABAD: Amidst rising cases of irregularities in delivery of custom-milled rice to the government by millers, Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday directed officials to conduct an audit of paddy
procurement since Telangana’s formation.
During a review meeting on the Custom Milled Rice (CMR) system, the minister said that the audit would be conducted on the procurement that took place since the formation of the state.
“The audit would cover rice milling operations, recoveries, legal proceedings and enforcement measures to strengthen accountability in paddy procurement. It would cover the quality of the paddy procured, the receivable CMR and actual quantity delivered. It would also cover district-wise and rice mill-wise defaults, pending recoveries and other aspects,” he said.
Uttam directed the officials to recover government dues, identify systemic weaknesses and introduce far-reaching reforms to ensure that public assets are fully protected.
He reiterated that the government’s “primary objective is to recover public money and government-owned foodgrains rather than punishment alone”.
“The government has already made significant recoveries after allowing defaulting millers a limited window to settle their liabilities,” he said, while directing the officials to prepare a mill-wise, time-bound recovery plan covering every pending case.
‘Every bag of procured paddy is public money’
The minister said that every bag of paddy procured under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) programme represents public money invested on behalf of Telangana’s farmers. Paddy procured by the Civil Supplies Corporation was entrusted to empanelled rice millers, who are contractually obligated to mill the paddy and return the prescribed quantity and quality of rice for supply to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and distribution through the Public Distribution System.
“Every bag of paddy entrusted to a miller is government property purchased with public money. Every kg diverted is a loss to the people of Telangana. Every tonne of rice not returned weakens the Public Distribution System,” he added.
During the meeting, Director General of Vigilance and Enforcement DS Chouhan and Commissioner of Civil Supplies Stephen Ravindra made a detailed presentation on inspections, raids, criminal cases, recoveries and prosecutions related to CMR defaults.
The officials informed the minister that criminal cases were being registered wherever evidence of fraud, diversion or criminal breach of trust was established. They said that the defaulting mills would be blacklisted.
The officials are preparing revised CMR Control Orders, incorporating stronger legal provisions, clearer contractual obligations, enhanced bank guarantee requirements, stricter penalties for default and improved enforcement mechanisms.
The meeting also discussed the introduction of technology-driven monitoring systems aimed at preventing future defaults. Among the reforms under consideration are QR-coded gunny bags for end-to-end traceability, GPS-based vehicle tracking, geo-tagged inspections, early-warning systems to detect defaults and risk-based auditing of rice mills.