Hyderabad: On the central government’s order, officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) ran suprise inspections on raw rice mills in Telangana. A number of 4,53,896 bags of rice have been missing from 40 rice mills in the state, and the Telangana state government has been asked by the centre for an explanation.
The FCI officials were directed to run a surprise inspection on the leftover 2,430 raw rice mills in Telangana to know how prevalent the missing rice problem is in the state.
After the paddy battle between the state and the centre, Union Minister for tourism G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday said,“ The FCI officers conducted a check on March 31 2022, on 40 random selected mills in Telangana and found 4,53,896 bags of rice missing from mills. The state should have been responsible for rice holdings with millers as the state had agreed with the millers.”
Kishan Reddy enquired about the missing rice. “As soon as these disparities were noticed, the state government was notified and a reply is awaited from it. What happened to this missing rice? Was it exported or sold elsewhere with the millers hoping to fill the gaps with rice milled from the current crop of paddy?”
Telangana should take strict action, and the centre must be informed of what happened to the missing rice, he stated. He also chastised the state government for being “unprepared” for the procurement of paddy.
“They had promised to supply FCI with 40 lakh tonnes of rice. This means that Telangana needs 15 crore gunny bags but only has one crore. They do not provide the necessary equipment, tarpaulin sheets to protect paddy brought by farmers in case of rain and measuring equipment to check for moisture content of the paddy,” he said.
