Punjab: Millers’ strike chokes mandis with paddy

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, October 15

The ongoing strike by rice millers in many parts of Punjab is impacting the paddy procurement operations with mandis being choked with grains as their lifting has come to a near halt. Over 65 per cent of the paddy purchased so far has not been lifted from mandis.

As of today, 14.88 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy is lying in the mandis with the rice shelling units refusing to let the government stock the newly purchased paddy on their premises.

Paddy procured is cleaned, stored in bags and then lifted from mandis and sent to the rice shelling units. It is only after its shelling that the rice is delivered to government agencies.

The rice millers in the state have been on strike for the past three days over the rejection of the fortified rice kernel (FRK) blended rice by the Government of India. The millers claim they have no role in the quality of FRK that they get to blend (1kg FRK in 99kg of custom milled rice) as the FRK is purchased from GoI-notified manufacturers. “But heavy fines are being imposed on us for the poor quality of FRK manufactured by someone else. We only blended what we got,” Bharat Bhushan Binta, president of the Punjab Rice Industries Association.

According to the data available from the Punjab Mandi Board, 23.69 LMT of paddy has arrived in the mandis till today. Of it, 22.71 LMT has been purchased. But only 7.83 LMT of paddy has been lifted, which is just 34.47 per cent of the total purchased stock.

Ravinder Singh Cheema, president of the Arhtiya Association of Punjab, said he had received reports from 60 of the biggest mandis, including Khanna, Rajpura, Banur, Patiala, Sirhind, Kharar, Kotkapura, Mandi Ahmedgarh, getting choked as arrivals are in full swing and lifting was not taking place.

In Rajpura, commission agent Mahinder Krishan Chand Arora, said there was not a yard of vacant space in the mandi. About 18 lakh bags of the total 22 lakh bags of paddy purchased in the mandi had not been lifted, he said.

Tarsem Saini, president of the Punjab Rice Millers Association, said they had had meetings with the state government on the issue of their harassment over the FRK-blended rice being rejected by the FCI. “Though they have assured of taking up the matter with the Centre, we will continue with our strike till our demand of accepting our previous years’ FRK-blended rice is accepted and no miller is unjustly punished,” he said.

Why the protest

Rice millers are protesting the rejection of their FRK-blended custom-milled rice sent to the FCI. The stock has been rejected on the pretext that its nutritional value is below specifications. Millers say that the fault lies with FRK manufacturers, but they are being punished for it

State may raise issue with Centre

Official sources in the Department of Food and Supplies said the state government might take up the issue with the Centre. The state government also wanted the Union Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution Ministry to resolve the issues of commission agents and mandi labourers who, too, have been protesting during the ongoing procurement season. Secretary, Food and Supplies, Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, could not be contacted for comment

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