CMR scam reveals systemic failure, no action against erring officials

Tribune News Service

Neeraj Mohan

New Delhi, December 16

Decades-long negligence and a lack of accountability among procurement agency officials are at the heart of the Custom Milled Rice (CMR) scam in Haryana.

A study of several cases and FIRs against defaulter millers also exposes negligence by ground officials of the procurement agencies, leading to rampant proliferation of the scam. Despite the deployment of multiple teams tasked with supervising the registration of mills, overseeing procurement operations, monitoring the movement of paddy, and conducting physical verification of stocks, private millers hired by the government for the procurement of paddy and milling operations managed to sell rice in the open market, instead of delivering it to the government. As many as 65 millers managed to sell around 1.60 lakh MT rice in the market from 2013-14 to 2022-23, but no action was taken against any official.

Government to blame, too

The government machinery shares equal responsibility for the scam. Why was the policy not amended and why no action was taken against those who failed to monitor the stocks and alert the government? This indicates that there is a nexus between the officials and millers. —A rice exporter

Despite several flaws in the CMR policy, it explicitly outlines the responsibility of procurement agency officials, including those from the Haryana Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumers Affairs Department, in conducting regular physical verifications of procured stocks in mills until the rice is returned to the government.

Experts recommend that stringent monitoring and action against officials could be instrumental in addressing the issue. “The government machinery shares equal responsibility for the scam. Why was the policy not amended and why no action was taken against those who failed to monitor the rice stocks and alert the government in a timely manner? This indicates that there is a nexus between the officials and rice millers,” alleged a rice exporter on the condition of anonymity.

According to policy, ground-level officials are supposed to scrutinise the documents and background of every registered miller, ensuring compliance with established norms. However, investigations reveal that many millers, in violation of regulations, establish firms in the names of family members, a fact overlooked by verification officials.

“Any laxity in this will tantamount to negligence and appropriate action will be taken against the concerned agency inspector, Assistant Food Supply Officer, District Food and Supplies Controller and District Manager,” the CMR policy reads.

Mukul Kumar, Director, Haryana Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs Department, acknowledged the need for amendments to the upcoming CMR policy to address loopholes. “In the next year’s CMR policy, we will try to fix all issues and loopholes being used by the millers. Even stricter rules will be framed for stringent action against the officials by fixing their responsibility and accountability,” he said.

To rectify the situation, officials working on recovery from millers propose immediate amendments to the policy. They also suggest requiring millers to deposit at least 50 per cent of the total paddy cost, pledging properties as security. Additionally, strict action should be taken against those responsible for verifying the track record of millers.

Dr Virender Singh Lather, former Principal Scientist of ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, said, “Since the rice scam has become a routine affair in Haryana, the defaulter millers are in nexus with officials of the procurement agencies. Besides strict rules for recovery and action against the defaulter mills and errant officials, the government should take the technical guidance on paddy milling percentage from quality labs of national and state agriculture institutions.”

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