PDS rice  diverted to neighbouring States  

The rice meaning for public distribution system is surreptitiously diverted to neighbouring States where it is being recycled and sold at Rs 15 or 20 a kg. In fact, the rice enjoys good demand in the market.
The rice, which is meant for distribution among the ration card- holders, is being procured locally and diverted illegally to other states. The touts have been earning huge profit selling the tons of recycled PDS rice. In fact, there are allegations that some fair price shop dealers are not distributing the rice properly to the card-holders.
There is open criticism that some of the fair price shop dealers have been diverting the rice meant for public distribution system to other purposes helping the smugglers to smuggle the rice across the border to other states.
The rice is finding its way into the markets of Tamil Nadu and Odisha. Now and then the vigilance officials have been conducting raids to check the smuggling of the PDS rice and confiscating the rice bags, but there was no let-up in the smuggling of the rice.
Depending on the demand for the rice, in some areas the rice is being sold between Rs 15 and 20 a kg. Some of the smugglers have targeted to smuggle the rice into Maharashtra markets, while some others transport the rice illegally to Tamil Nadu,  Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
The procured PDS rice is being recycled into fine variety of rice in some designated rice mills and packed into 20- or 25-kg rice bags and fake way bills are created to smuggle them to the markets across the border of Telangana.
In north Telangana, several rice mills have been illegally  recycling the PDS rice in Karimnagar and Warangal districts. The police would dare touch these rice mills as the mill owners have political support. The modus operandi is the mill owners, who enjoy a lot of political clout, send their agents to villages to procure PDS rice from cardholders. The procured rice is generally polished especially at night time at these rice mills. Lorries directly transport the rice bags from these mills.
The mill owners allegedly grease the palms of the police and revenue personnel on a regular basis to ensure no hiccups in the movement of the rice bags. To keep the illegal trade under the warps, the rice mill owners often grease palms of some sections of society, it is alleged. This indicates the extent of the moolah the rice mills rake  up in the murky business.
In Karimnagar district, some traders take the closed rice mills on lease and got the plant an d machinery overhauled and get the coarse rice polished into a fine variety of rice, according to allegations. Cases have been registered under the Section 6A of the Essential Commodities Act. The cases detected recently stand as a testimony to the fact how the rice millers and officials have become hand-in-glove with each other.
The recycling of the PDS rice is an open secret. But, the civil supplies officials not carrying out raids  on suspects fuelling doubts in the minds of the public on the rationality behind the official inaction.