Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh): The terms and conditions of the contracts for giving paddy to rice millers for custom milling have been allegedly violated in the district. According to the terms and conditions, the mills that make rice by boiling paddy should not be part of the contract, but 16 such mills have been provided with paddy.
On the other hand, the rice millers, who have been given paddy, have allegedly sold it in Maharashtra instead of storing it on the mill premises. Instead, they are smuggling in old rice from other states and selling it in MP after recycling it, sources said. Ushna Mills are making rice from the paddy supplied by the government. Instead of producing rice, they are supplying it in the market.
According to the contract, the collector, the district food officer and the sub-divisional officer should visit the rice mills to do the physical verification of paddy and the process for milling rice. The collector has set up a team to visit the rice mills to do physical verification. But the team is barely doing any work, sources further said. A private agency is procuring rice after custom milling. A few Ushna mills are making rice by boiling paddy. But they are smuggling in old brown rice from other states and selling it in the market at higher prices.
Nevertheless, the official team has never visited the Ushna mills for doing physical verification of paddy according to the contract. The rice mills which have received the paddy should keep the bags bearing the mark of the procurement centres, and such bags should be available on the mill premises for checking during the physical verification. But the paddy bags have not been physically verified.
The last date for paddy procurement was January 23, and nearly 3,478 lots of paddy were supplied to 114 rice millers. The rice supplied to the millers was a 15, 09, 452 quintals. So, there should be four million empty bags on the rice mill premises. According to sources, but as a huge amount of paddy was sold in the black market, the number of bags could not be physically verified.
