Hyderabad: In the ongoing raids by vigilance and enforcement (V&E) officials, paddy shortage worth Rs 900 crore was unearthed in the last three weeks. Paddy was given to rice millers to return it to govt as custom-milled rice, but many of them failed to honour the promise.With a stern message from the govt to the millers to “either pay up for the paddy or face the possibility of going to jail,” many millers have started to pay back, with total recovery reaching nearly Rs 700 crore.In a related development, chief minister A Revanth Reddy, along with civil supplies minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, held a review meeting and directed officials to continue the crackdown against the erring rice millers and intensify recovery of the dues owed by the millers to govt.Stating that govt adopted a cooperative approach towards millers who operate with a genuine business mindset, the CM warned that it would deal sternly with those who deliberately attempt to evade payments.“The previous BRS govt indulged in irregularities in collecting dues from the rice millers, which caused accumulation of dues in thousands of crores of rupees,” the CM said, while taking strong objection to the opposition blaming the present govt for the recovery of mounting dues from the rice millers.Sources told TOI that the raids being conducted under the supervision of V&E director-general DS Chauhan would be intensified against unscrupulous rice millers, as govt is expecting that the overall shortage of paddy which was to be auctioned and that for custom milling could all be worth over Rs 3,000 crore. So far, Rs 900 crore worth of paddy shortage with millers has been detected.When the official briefed Revanth on the progress in recovering the dues from millers, the CM insisted that the value of every single grain must be recovered. Further, he instructed officials to formulate specific guidelines for a process to recover the dues and submit the report to the cabinet sub-committee.“The state will take an appropriate decision following the cabinet sub-committee’s review. The paddy previously allocated to millers, who have become defaulters, would instead be allocated to women’s groups and the milling responsibilities would be entrusted to them,” Revanth said.On the recurring difficulties in storing paddy stocks each season, the CM instructed officials to formulate an action plan immediately. A pilot project for constructing silo bags or silo storage facilities would be taken up in districts with high paddy yields, such as Nalgonda, Suryapet, Nizamabad, Peddapalli, and Kamareddy.The CM also announced that 50-100 acres of land per constituency would be allocated for setting up the silo bag facilities, to be managed by women self-help groups (SHGs).A meeting would be convened with the ministers of revenue, civil supplies, and women’s welfare to discuss the construction of these facilities. The CM suggested exploring the possibility of constructing spacious platforms under the VB G Ram G scheme and using German tents for paddy storage in the available space.The officials were also instructed to identify private warehouses, function halls, old cinema theatres, and other sheds at the mandal and village levels in advance and lease them for paddy storage.
