The miller complained to the Minister that the FCI failed to accept custom milled rice from them
PNS n hyderabad
Rice millers on Wednesday complained to Minister for Civil Supplies Gangula Kamalakar and Commissioner for Civil Supplies Anil Kumar that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is on a collision course with them. The FCI was not accepting custom milled rice (CMR)
The rice milling industry is facing a severe crisis as the FCI failed to provide proper storage facilities and refused to accept the fortified rice kernel (FRK) sent by the Central government agency Nafed. They expressed their fear that they may be forced to take extreme action.
They pointed out that despite the availability of storage space at its warehouses, the FCI was not accepting the CMR. It would lead to the millers suffering huge losses.
In all, 294 rice millers were blacklisted by t the FCI on the pretext that the quality of the FRK rice was poor
A total of one crore tonnes of paddy remained with rice millers. The millers are required to mill 1.13 crore tonnes of paddy. As the paddy of the last kharif season became drenched in unseasonal rains.
Under these circumstances, they urged the government to take back the paddy stored with them. They agreed to act as only custodians of the government paddy. They urged the government to sell the paddy through an open auction, if necessary.
The Minister assured the millers that the government would find a solution to the problem soon. He demanded that the Centre cannot shirk its responsibility in procuring the CMR. He said that the government was ready to deliver 10 lakh tonnes of CMR a month provided the FCI provided the necessary storage space. The Minister held discussions with the FCI authorities and asked them to increase the storage capacity and accept the CMR.
Since the Centre is required to permit the auction of the paddy, Kamalakar assured that he would take the problems being faced by rice millers to the notice of the Chief Minister.
