Hyderabad: Millers in Telangana have siphoned off 25,000 metric tonnes of rice worth Rs 80 crore meant for public distribution system. While the government provided paddy stocks worth nearly Rs 50 lakh to each mill for milling, it took just up to Rs 5 lakh as security deposit.
The government is not in a position to recover the losses even if it auctions the mills by invoking the Revenue Recovery Act. The government has issued notices to over 150 rice mills invoking R&R Act but the chances of recovering the losses appear remote. The government purchases paddy from farmers and supplies it to rice mills. The government pays the milling charges.
As per norms, the millers have to return rice to the government in 45 days. About 25,000 metric tonnes of rice was not returned even after a year. Though the civil supplies department issued repeated notices, the millers ignored them.
Nalgonda tops the list of defaulting mills in the state at 11,260 metric tonnes, and is followed by Adilabad (4,400 metric tonnes), Nizamabad (4,313 metric tonnes), Mahbubnagar (2,401 metric tonnes) and Medak (2,503 metric tonnes). Ranga Reddy, Karimna-gar and Warangal acco-unt for 838 metric tonnes.
“Our department revealed that many rice mill owners have diverted these stocks to the open market. We have started filing criminal cases against them. We are also invoking R&R Act and taking possession of rice mills,” said civil supplies minister Etela Rajender.
Mill owners do not appear to be particularly intimidated, as they paid lower security deposits and there are no takers if the mills are auctioned. The government is now planning to increase security deposit besides attaching the other properties of mills owners.
