Rice worth Rs. 420 cr misappropriated

Kodad (Suryapet): In a major scandal, eight rice millers in Suryapet district have allegedly diverted hundreds of crores worth of paddy provided by the Civil Supplies Department for custom milling. The investigation, conducted recently by the Vigilance and Enforcement Department, revealed that the diverted paddy was converted into rice and sold in the open market, with some even exported to other countries via Kakinada Port.

Among the eight mills, four mills misappropriated paddy worth Rs. 420 crore, while the remaining four diverted paddy worth Rs. 95 crore. Although the Civil Supplies Department has already filed cases against these millers, some managed to obtain stays from the High Court to avoid action under the Revenue Recovery (RR) Act. Using these stays, they are reportedly continuing their operations by leasing other mills.

Officials have identified the involvement of eight mills in the CMR (Custom Milked Rice) scam here; this includes Sri Santoshi Rice Mill (Tirumalagiri): Rs. 120 crore worth of paddy; Sri Venkateswara Rice Industry Pvt. Ltd. (Kodad): Rs. 85 crore worth of paddy; Sri Santoshi Mata Rice Mill (near Gaddipalli, Garidepalli Mandal): Rs. 105 crore worth of paddy; and Tirumala Rice Mill (Nereducharla): Rs. 108 crore worth of paddy.

In addition, Harshita Rice Corporation, MKR Rice Mill, Raghuram Industry, and Lakshmi Traders, all based in the district, collectively diverted another Rs. 95 crore worth of CMR paddy and sold the rice in the open market.

During the 2022–23 Kharif season, they exported 56,184 metric tonnes of rice worth Rs. 212 crore, and during the 2022–23 Rabi season, they exported 83,911 metric tonnes worth Rs. 303 crore to foreign countries, according to evidence gathered by the Vigilance officials.

In addition, In the 2022–23 Kharif season, these eight millers were allocated paddy worth nearly Rs. 300 crore under the CMR scheme by the Civil Supplies Department. However, they failed to return the processed rice as per the agreement.

Technically, they should not have been allocated paddy for the 2022–23 Rabi season, yet they received another Rs 250 crore worth of paddy with the support of certain public representatives. Reports indicate that the millers bribed district-level officials with lakhs of rupees to secure these allocations.

Once CMR paddy is allocated to mills, mandal-level officials are required to monitor the process daily to ensure there is no diversion. They must maintain registers recording the allocated paddy, the processed rice returned by the millers, and the remaining paddy stock. However, the Vigilance report highlights that these procedures were ignored.