91,000 bags of rice found in Ferozepur
THE SURPRISE CHECK WAS CARRIED OUT IN 10 RICE MILLS AND FOUR OF THEM WERE FOUND INDULGING IN THE ILLEGAL PRACTICE
Taking a serious note of illegal recycling of the public distribution system (PDS) rice meant for the poor, the Punjab food and civil supplies department on Thursday cracked down on unscrupulous millers in Ferozepur district, finding 91,000 bags of illegally hoarded rice.
The surprise check was carried out in 10 rice mills on instructions from food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu and four of them were found indulging in the illegal practice. The raids led by the chief vigilance officer of the department allegedly found that Mahalaxmi Rice Mills was hoarding 11,000 bags of paddy of last year equivalent to 55,275 bags of rice and the Cereal Food Exports had 58,000 bags of paddy equivalent to 29,145 bags of rice. Similarly, Ferozepur Food Exports had 2,700 bags of rice while Shree Sham Ji Industries had 1,200 bags of rice.
“These rice mills apparently procured PDS rice in black market last year from other states and kept the stock to recycle it in the coming milling season by showing bogus procurement of the crop through fictitious billing for the same,” said an official spokesperson of the department. The department has handed over information on millers found hoarding rice to the Punjab Mandi Board and the sales tax department for action. It is also contemplating cancellation of registration of millers who indulge in such malpractices.
The minister asked the department officials to be more vigilant, stating that no fictitious billing whatsoever will be permitted in the state. “The government will not let any deceitful elements to cause financial losses to the state by their corrupt practices,” he said.
The department, in a series of initiatives to tighten the noose around the defaulting rice millers, has introduced decided to adopt ‘CIBIL score’, a benchmark of credit rating history from Credit Information Bureau India Limited, for allocation of paddy for milling. Bank guarantee has also been made mandatory to siphoning off of paddy by unscrupulous millers.