FCI to inspect rice mills in Telangana

Hyderabad: The Food Corporation of India will launch inspections of the rice mills in Telangana from Tuesday. This inspection is being taken up following the Union Ministry of Civil Supplies direction since there were complaints of mismatch of the figures presented by the Telangana government on paddy and rice stocks at the rice mills.

The teams will visit nearly 2,300 rice mills across the state and review the status of paddy procurement and rice processing. The FCI officials said they had received complaints that nearly 4.5 lakh paddy bags had gone missing in the last two agricultural seasons.

Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy also lodged a complaint about the missing paddy stocks from the mills. In 2020-2021, it was found that there was a shortage of 1.96 lakh bags of paddy and shortage of 2.57 lakh gunny bags in 2021-2022 kharif season. Forty rice mills were allegedly involved in the disappearance of paddy bags.

The State Civil Supplies department has been asked to furnish the details of the paddy procurement so far and the status of milling process. Based on the information, the FCI officials are now set to visit the stock points and look for irregularities if any. "Action will be taken against the mill management in case a mismatch in the paddy stocks was found," said a source. Meanwhile, with the Centre agreeing to procure raw rice from the government, the state Civil Supplies department opened paddy procurement centres in villages. It is estimated that 60 lakh metric tonnes of paddy would be procured during the current season. The Civil Supplies department geared up to procure paddy as the next farm season is approaching.