Manohar warns of stern action against rice black marketing mafia

Guntur : Minister for Civil Supplies Dr Nadendla Manohar warned that the NDA government in the State will take stern action against the PDS rice black marketing mafia.

Responding to a question, raised by MLCs Dr V Chiranjeevi Rao, D Rama Rao and P Anuradha in the State Legislative Council meeting on Wednesday, he recalled that the government booked 1,010 cases against the PDS rice black marketing mafia and recovered 60,000 metric tonnes of PDS rice.

He said the Central and the State governments were distributing the PDS rice on subsidy to provide food protection to the poor.

He said some persons were indulging in black marketing of the PDS rice to make a fast buck and added that he had inspected 13 rice mills in Kakinada.

He said that the government had set up check-posts to check illegal transport of PDS rice. He further said that a team consisting of joint collector, revenue and police officials must give NOC to allow the rice for export. Then only rice will be allowed for export, he added.

He recalled that he had inspected the rice mills in Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Palnadu districts and added that in Kakinada 13 cases were booked under 6(A) of 1955 EC Act.

He said the Kakinada JC imposed a penalty on the MDU operators and one MDU operator was sacked. Following orders of the High Court, 26,488 tonnes of non-PDS rice was seized.