Rice mills in Punjab, Haryana to stop supplies for central pool

The public distribution system in India is likely to face a supply constraint of rice this season as the rice millers of Haryana and Punjab have decided to abstain from milling the custom milling rice (CMR) paddy. Rice millers must supply 75 per cent of the total non-basmati rice milled for the central pool.

Rice millers in Haryana have been on strike since August 24 this year against the Haryana government’s decision on the recovery of the transport cost of the last four years.

Azad Singh Rathi, president of Haryana Rice Millers Association, told the media in Chandigarh today that the agencies of Haryana (Food Supply, Hafed, Haryana Warehouse, Haryana Agro Industries) refused to accept the proposal of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda regarding the non-recovery of Rs 36 crore of transport cost of four years.

Sharing the same platform, the president of All India Rice Millers Association (AIRMA) Tarsem Saini said that they will hold a mahapanchayat of the rice millers of five states (Punjab, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana) near Karnal in Haryana on September 7 to manifest their solidarity on the issue.

The rice millers of these states would not mill CMR for the government if the plight of the rice millers in Haryana is not taken care of, he added.

According to Saini, "This happened only in Haryana and not in any other state. Haryana has taken the benefit of doubt left in the policy of the government of India on rice milling, where it is not very clear whether the transportation charges are part of the milling charges or not." He added that the AIRMA also wants the government to announce its paddy procurement policy at least a fortnight before the harvesting starts.

The announcement of bonus that usually comes after a month of starting of procurement puts the millers in a catch-22 situation as they have to calculate the payments to the farmers from the back date for the rice they had already sold in the market at the prevailing price.

Rice millers are also against the proposed revision of CMR security from Rs 2 lakh for 2,000 metric tonnes to Rs 5 lakh per metric tonnes. The millers also raised concerns over the revision of bank guarantee to Rs 15 lakh.