HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP A. Revanth Reddy called for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry on paddy procurement, custom milling and rice supplied to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) since 2014. He alleged that a few key people from the TRS government colluded with rice millers to siphon off crores of rupees of public money.
Revanth called for stringent action to be taken against errant rice millers and others. He wrote an open letter to Union minister for tourism and culture G. Kishan Reddy on Thursday, alleging that during recent inspections carried out by FCI officials, it was found that around 2.26 lakh MTs of paddy, worth Rs 45 crore, had disappeared from rice mills.
The state government is allotting paddy to rice mills for custom milling and handover the rice to FCI; however, few millers sell the rice in open market, he added. Further, Revanth claimed that subsidised rice was purchased by millers at Rs 8 per kg and was supplied to FCI at higher prices.
Of 3,200 rice mills, FCI officials conducted inspections at 900 mills and found irregularities worth Rs 400 crore, he said. Since the past eight years, few people in the TRS government colluded with rice millers and misappropriated public money, he stated. Revanth also demanded that the Revenue Recovery (RR) act be invoked against errant rice millers to recover the rice and mills should be seized.
Criminal action should be initiated against TRS leaders for their alleged involvement in the rice scam, he said, adding that Kishan Reddy himself stated that large-scale irregularities had taken place with regard to paddy procurement in Telangana state, and called for action in this regard.
