Rice mills raided; rice, paddy seized

Rice mills were raided in Mysore district and Rs 67.84 lakh worth rice and paddy were seized for not complying with the state’s levy order. Cases have been booked against the rice mill owners under the Essential Commodities Act.

According to a release, Mysore deputy commissioner Harsh Gupta raided two rice mills in Nanjangud, three in T Narasipur, one each in K R Nagar and Mysore taluk last week.

The seizure included 5,210.30 quintals of paddy, 665.25 quintals rice and 35 quintals broken rice. Their total worth was Rs 67.84 lakh.

The deputy commissioner has warned rice mill owners that if they failed to comply with the levy order and surrender the levy rice to the government at least now, raids would continue and they could be booked and criminal cases filed against them.

While the levy target set for the district was 17,000 quintals, the collection was only 7,500 quintals. Against this background, a meeting of rice mill owners was convened and they were told to comply with the order.

The mill owners complained that they were being harassed at checkposts and wanted this stopped.

Paying heed to their request, the check posts were closed as they were serving no purpose.