HYDERABAD: In more trouble for the common man, the price of BPT variety of rice has shot up by Rs 600 to Rs 800 per quintal over the last three to four days in the open market. Retailers believe that more bad news is in store; they expect the prices to keep rising over the next two months.
The price of a quintal of BPT rice used to be around Rs 3,800 last week and has now touched the Rs 4,600 mark. Social activists are attributing the price rise to millers stockpiling food grains to create an artificial scarcity. They believe that the rice millers have been stockpiling the BPT variety of rice, which is in demand, for months, and the impact is now visible in the form of rising prices.
Forum For the Better Society president Pullemla Rame-sh Goud said that millers in the erstwhile Nalgonda district kept their rice mills closed for three days to create an impression that they are running out of stock.“It is learnt that the millers want to release the rice at the rate of around Rs 5,400 per quintal at the time of Dasara. The government should act sternly against those stockpiling food grains and ensure prices remain under control,” Ramesh Goud said.
When asked about the scarcity, a miller, who wished to remain anonymous, said that there is demand for rice due to food distribution at Ganesh pandals.“Moreover, in Telangana, farmers are mostly cultivating a fine variety of rice or grains meant for the PDS. Naturally, there is less production of BPT variety which is widely being consumed by the people,” a rice miller said. Calls to Civil Supplies Commissioner V Anil Kumar evoked no response.