State orders crackdown on rice millers

OST Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 7:

Taking note of the shortfall of 4 lakh metric tons of custom milling rice (CMR), the state government has decided to initiate stern action against the rice millers.

Talking to the media on Monday, Food Supply and Consumer Welfare minister Pratap Keshari Deb said he has directed the district collectors to raid the rice mills in their districts.

Admitting that state government has failed to collect cent percent CMR from the millers every year, he said the government used to collect the CMR either by seizing them from the rice mill or collecting the penalty from the millers.

“The government this year has decided to exclude the millers from paddy procurement who have failed to return the CMR by December 31. The state government incurs a loss of around Rs 12 crore every year due to the callousness of the millers but now we would take these erring millers to task by confiscating their deposited money and filing cases against them”, the minister informed.

Sources in the Food Supply and Consumer Welfare department said around 1100 millers procure paddy from the farmers on behalf of the state government every year and return the CMR to the government by December 31.

However, some millers do not return the CMR as they either sell these to other parties or hoard them to sell at a higher rate later.