Bank guarantee condition not justified, say millers

Tribune News Service

Ropar, September 2

Reacting to the Punjab Custom Milling of Paddy Policy, local rice millers have decided to refuse milling of paddy procured by various government agencies here on Sunday. They said asking all millers to submit a bank guarantee equal to the value of 5 per cent of acquisition cost of total paddy to be stored in the mill was not justified.

The millers said the state government could not punish all millers for the crime of a few. Members of the Rupnagar Rice Millers Association led by its president Sanjay Bhoot said if the government failed to drop this condition from the new policy, they would not accept any paddy for milling when the procurement season starts on October 1. Tightening its noose around defaulting rice millers, the state Cabinet recently while approving the new policy had decided to adopt a benchmark of credit rating history of rice millers for the allocation of paddy for milling. According to the new policy, the millers have to submit certified credit report along with complete Credit Information Bureau India Limited (CIBIL) report and they need to have a CIBIL score not below 600 to get allocation of paddy.

To prevent incidents of siphoning off paddy bags, the millers will have to submit a bank guarantee equal to the value of 5 per cent of acquisition cost of the total paddy to be stored in the mill.

The paddy is allocated for delivery of rice into the Central pool from more than 3,710 mills in the state. In Ropar, over two dozen rice mills are established where nearly 5 lakh metric tonne of paddy is milled every year.

Bhoot said a few of the millers in connivance with government officials had committed paddy fraud last year, while a majority of the millers were honest with unblemished record. With the new condition of bank guarantee, crores of rupees of millers would be blocked which would further create corruption, he added.

‘Don’t punish all for crime of few’ 

• Millers said asking all millers to submit a bank guarantee equal to the value of 5 per cent of acquisition cost of total paddy to be stored in the mill was not justified.
• They said the state government could not punish all millers for the crime of a few.