1.4 Lakh Tonnes of Unsold Coarse Rice Pile Up in Telangana
The civil supplies department has recently floated a tender for receiving all the rice and auctioning it.
Hyderabad: With the state government choosing fine rice for PDS distribution, mountains of coarse rice has piled up at different levels of the public distribution network, raising fears of foodgrains getting spoiled.
Out of 1.45 lakh metric tonnes of coarse rice, over 25,000 tonnes of rice is stranded with ration dealers. The remaining 1.20 lakh tonnes of rice is stored at godowns and mandal level stock points across the state. As the rice faces spoilage over time in different places, the onus is now placed on those who have stored it.
“It is the responsibility of those who have stored the rice, and it should be returned back to us as we have delivered it to them. I have given you my product; if the time has come for me to dispose of it, it is their duty to either return the rice as it was or buy use of similar stock,” contended a highly placed source in the civil supplies department to Deccan Chronicle.
The civil supplies department has recently floated a tender for receiving all the rice and auctioning it. The ration dealers, who are holding the stock, however, remained apprehensive about the way the authorities would clear the stocks from their storerooms and other warehouses.
“The stocks that have been piled up are now infested. If the authorities accept the rice in such a condition, they have floated tenders for taking it back and auctioning the stock. But we have kept our fingers crossed for now,” said a former leader of the Ration Dealers Association, on condition of anonymity.
Sources said the state government’s failure to dispose of the stock to over 17,230 ration dealers is also one of the important reasons. “We make 100 per cent allotment. Other factors for accumulation include beneficiaries receiving rice from other Fair Price Shops because of the portability facility now available,” the sources added.