Govt starts verifying paddy stock in Karnal rice mills

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 24

After the alleged report of bogus procurement in the district, the state government has initiated physical verification of rice mills.

About 30 teams, comprising five members in a team, started verification in the district on Friday.

Till Sunday evening, they had verified the stock of paddy and rice, papers and gunny bags of around 70 mills. They are also checking the record and stock of allotment of paddy for CMR with the available rice in the mill. However, the findings are yet to be disclosed.

The authorities claim after the completion of physical verification, the finding would be disclosed.

Anil Kumar, DFSC, told The Tribune that verification is under way and the findings would only be disclosed after the completion of verification. “We have to cover all 316 mills that had been allotted paddy. Directions have been given to us to complete it in five days,” he added.

The data shows the non-basmati paddy has been procured more than double the production in the district. As per the data of the Agriculture Department, the estimated production of non-basmati paddy is 7.5 lakh MT. Against the production of 7.5 lakh MT of non-basmati, the district has already purchased 16,80,929 MT PR paddy. This is happening every year as during the last year, various procurement agencies had procured 14,81,735 MT.

On the other hand, the rice millers are sticking to their decision not to deliver milled rice to government till the withdrawal of the police. They met MP Karnal Sanjay Bhatia. Vinod Goel, senior vice-president, Haryana Rice Millers and Dealers Association, said that they were cooperating with the officials in the physical verification.

The decision regarding the delivery of the CMR will be taken in the next meeting of the state body. “We met MP Sanjay Bhatia today and requested him for the withdrawal of the police,” he added.