Crackdown on rice millers spurs action

Wanaparthy: Following orders by the district administration, rice millers are ramping up operations to meet their targets of supplying rice to Food Corporation in Wanaparthy district. A special team of vigilance officials has been inspecting five rice mills which had been booked for irregularities. Some mills are yet to provide rice even though they were supplied paddy in 2021.

District Collector Tejas Nanda Lal Pawar took a serious note of the negligence of rice millers and got the District Civil Supplies Officer transferred. He held several meetings with the Rice Millers Association, and warned that action under the Revenue Recovery Act would be initiated if the targets were not met by February 29.

Inspections by a special team under Chief Vigilance Officer Colonel Prakash were ordered at five rice mills in the district, following the orders of Commissioner of State Civil Supplies

Last month, civil supplies department officials booked cases against a trader Ishan in Miraspalli village in Kothakota mandal, Meenakshi Food Production in Muhammadapur in Pangalmandal, Kedarnath Rice Mill in Wanaparthy town, Ishan Agro and Parameswara Rice Mills in Pangal mandal. Not only were the bags of rice given to the Central Food Corporation for making rice not delivered on time, the officials also found that there was a difference between the bags of rice that were given and the bags that were stored. Around 2,25,179 sacks of paddy are found to be in short supply and cases have been booked.

As millers are moving courts to stall the government’s punitive action, it is learned Civil Supplies Commissioner deputed a special team headed by Chief Vigilance Officer Prakash to look into the state of affairs at the mills. This is said to be having a positive effect and millers are falling in line with the orders