Govt to conduct physical verification of 63 rice mills in Karnal

KARNAL: With 63 rice mills in Karnal district having failed to return 1.28 lakh MT rice under the Custom Milled Rice (CMR) Policy of the Haryana government, the district administration has decided to conduct physical verification of the mills. As per information, the state government had allocated 13lakh MT paddy to 288 rice mills in Karnal and as per the CMR policy they had to return total 2.05 lakh MT rice to the government and 50% rice by January 31. But these 63 rice mills were unable to return 50% rice and now total 1.28 lakh MT rice is due with these mills.

“We have decided to conduct physical verification of these rice mills as they could not return rice as per the policy and further action will be taken as per physical verification of the stock of paddy and rice at the mills,” said Karnal deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav. Karnal district food and supplies controller Nishant Rathi said 63 rice mills could not return 50% rice but most of these mills have returned around 45% rice to the government. Now, physical verification of the stock of these rice mills will be conducted as per government guidelines. On the reason, he said that some rice mills could also not deliver rice as the Food Corporation of India did not accept the rice for the past 15 days.

Putting a check on rice scam remains a challenge for the Haryana government as the rice millers in state did not return rice of around Rs 523 crore to the government agencies since 2012 and the default amount is increasing every year. The government is yet to recover 2,02,562 MT rice since 2012.

As per figures of the food and civil supplies department, the biggest default by the rice mills was reported in election year 2013-14 as the rice mills in state did not return 61,365 MT rice of Rs 145.29 crore. Even in 2019-20, the rice millers did not return 26,844 MT rice of Rs 84.75 crore to the government.