State flags slow delivery of milled rice in letter to FCI

The state government is worried over the shortage of space for storing rice milled from the paddy procured in October last year. The space crunch is leading to slow delivery of rice by millers to the Food Corporation of India, which in turn, is leading to resentment amongst rice millers.

In a letter to the central food procurement agency, FCI, the state Food and Supply Department pointed out that only 32% of the custom-milled rice could be delivered as the corporation stated that it did not have space. Ideally, all rice is to be delivered to the FCI by March 31.

The state government has also revoked the “unscientific/non-uniform” allocation of space by the FCI field staff to the millers. “The field staff is allocating space to the millers at centres other than the one originally linked, without paying transportation charge. This has led to discriminatory and non-uniform allocation of space to the rice millers by the FCI,” reads the letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune. Sources said the issue of shortage of space for storing rice as well as wheat, which will start coming in the mandis by mid-April, was also discussed at a meeting of all state agencies today.

“We are trying to create space for rice, and there will be no shortage of space. About 70 lakh metric tonne (LMT) of rice is yet to be delivered by rice mills. We are not just speeding up the outward movement of rice from Punjab to other states, but are also hiring godowns owned by state foodgrain procurement agencies for keeping the newly milled rice,” B Srinivasan, General Manager of FCI, Punjab Region, told The Tribune. He added that movement of rice stored in Punjab would increase from April onwards.

The Tribune had earlier reported that the wheat crop that will start arriving in the mandis from next month will have to be stored in the open or covered and plinth (CAP) storages because of the non-availability of foodgrain storage space. Almost 120 LMT of wheat is expected to be procured in the upcoming rabi marketing season. While 20-25 LMT of wheat will be delivered directly to recipient states, the government has made arrangements for storing 70 LMT under CAP storage. The government is now looking for another 20 LMT of space (CAP) to store the entire stock of wheat to be procured this year.