Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 17
Under the Centre’s scanner over state paddy procurement far exceeding the production last year, the Punjab Government has tightened its noose around erring millers/traders who buy cheap rice and paddy from outside the state for further sale to the Food Corporation of India on higher MSP.
Centre keeping strict vigil
The Centre has been keeping a strict vigil on the paddy procurement process in Punjab this year. In 2019, paddy purchase stood at 163.82 LMT while in 20202, it jumped to 202.82 LMT, though area under cultivation came down by 2 lakh hectares. This jump was attributed by the Centre to bogus billing and sale of paddy from outside the state in Punjab mandis
As part of the drive to check malpractices ahead of the paddy procurement season, a team of vigilance officials from the Food and Supplies Department conducted a search and seizure operation at a rice mill in Jalalabad and found over 23,000 tonne rice worth Rs 33 crore stocked there.
Since the previous years’ rice has already been delivered and this year’s paddy procurement is yet to begin, the huge stockpile of rice at the mill has raised raiding team’s suspicion.
Officials in the department said their probe had so far proven that rice was brought to the mill from another state (apparently UP) and was most likely meant to be passed on to the FCI, passing it off as rice milled from paddy grown in Punjab. The firm has reportedly been blacklisted.
In another instance, the vigilance sleuths of the department intercepted two truckloads of rice coming to a mill in Bagha Purana from UP. While the mill denied the rice was meant for them, the address and name on the bills suggested otherwise. “The current accounts of the mill are being examined, and if it is found that it paid for the rice, it too will be blacklisted,” said a senior officer in the department.
“The modus operandi is to buy rice meant for public distribution from either UP or Bihar at Rs 2,100 to Rs 2,200 per quintal. The paddy that would yield this quantity of rice upon milling is then shown to have been sold through a commission agent to a government agency, without any paddy being actually sold. The MSP of Rs 1,940 per quintal will be claimed for this bogus sale of paddy and then the rice will be passed off to government agencies, that will pay Rs 3,300 per quintal for this rice (at 67% upturn ratio),” a top officer in the department told The Tribune.
Ahead of paddy purchase, Punjab officials raid erring millers
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