Paddy now to be transported to rice mills by Haryana's food dept

The transportation of paddy from grain markets to the rice mills in Haryana will now be done by the state's food and civil supplies department and procurement agencies instead of rice millers, said a senior official here.

The step was taken to avoid "diversion or "bogus paddy purchase" and strengthen the procurement mechanism, said Additional Chief Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies P K Das in a statement here on Wednesday.

"To avoid diversion or ghost purchase of paddy, from now onwards the transportation of the paddy from mandis to rice mills will be done by the Haryana food and civil supplies department and other procurement agencies instead of leaving it to the millers, Das said.

He further said the trucks deployed for transportation of paddy will be GPS-fitted so that their movement can be monitored.

He further said that the physical verification of the paddy stock of 1,304 rice mills in the state was done, following which a shortfall of 42,589 metric tonnes (MT) of crop was detected in 1,207 rice mills.

The Additional Chief Secretary further said that show-cause notices would be issued to the rice millers for stock shortageandafter receiving replies, strict action will be taken against the wrongdoers.

The ACS said during the verification, it was found that 205 mills had a shortfall of below 5 tonnes, 134 mills had a shortfall of 5 to 10 tonnes, 248 mills had a shortfall of 10-25 tonnes, in 325 mills a shortage of 25-50 tonnes and 295 mills had a shortage of more than 50 tonnes.

He said the highest mismatch in paddy stock in 284 mills was recorded in Karnal, followed by Kurukshetra where the shortfall was found in 236 mills.

Das said about 300 teams were deputed for physical verification, adding that the department took into account factors of total paddy allotted, milling capacity of rice mills, custom milled rice available and delivered to the Food Corporation of India and paddy stock left with the mills.

Notably, the opposition Congress had last year alleged that there were irregularities in the purchase of non-basmati paddy.