Farmers object about rice from Bihar being smuggled into Punjab

A rice mill in the Mansa district has discovered that it is receiving cheaper rice from the eastern state to be submitted to the FCI as rice shelled from the paddy purchased from Punjab mandis and assigned to the mill for shelling, in a case of rice smuggling from Bihar into Punjab.

The underground enterprise might have remained undiscovered if one of the trucks transporting the rice from Bihar hadn’t had an accident yesterday, drawing the attention of peasants who belong to the Punjab Kisan Union. Farmers in the region had to sit on a dharna to force government authorities to take action even after it was made public.

Farmers staged a demonstration against the mill, headed by Punjab Kisan Union leader Simranjit Singh Kulrian, who told The Tribune that when the fifth truck was seized, four truckloads of rice had already been placed inside the mill.

Based on available data, a consignment of five truckloads of rice was sent from Bihar to the rice mill located in the Mansa district’s Dharampura hamlet, which is close to Bareta. The Department of Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs, Mandi Board, and Markfed officials are currently conducting a physical verification of the stock and are still investigating the incident. However, it is suspected that the rice mill at Dharampura was only the first point of delivery, and that the rice was to be distributed to other mills, which would then pass it on to the FCI as the rice milled from paddy that was allocated to them in the previous paddy season.

The beneficiaries allegedly avoided paying the mandi levy on the rice in addition to purchasing cheaper rice from Bihar. The Tribune was informed by Secretary of Food and Supplies Vikas Garg that the mill’s owners were being suitably prosecuted. He indicated they would have to pay the market rate.

In the meanwhile, the vice-president of the Punjab Rice Industry Association, Ranjit Singh Josan, said that this year the state’s rice millers were forced to get rice from outside the state in order to provide the consignment to the FCI. The percentage of rice from paddy that is sent to mills is 67%. During the previous kharif season, however, the paddy’s moisture level was quite high.

This paddy’s shelled rice was stained and harmed. We were only able to shell 60–62 percent of the rice in the paddy as a consequence. However, millers worry that if they don’t fulfill the rice supply criteria, the FCI would put them on a blacklist. Thus, they are turning to purchasing rice and providing the required amount to the FCI,” he said.

Markfed, M.D. Girish Dayalan said that even though their officers’ physical inspection of the rice supply did not reveal any anomalies or shortages, they discovered two trucks carrying around 600 quintal of grain parked at Shiv Shankar Rice Mill. A mandi fee of Rs 38,385 has been sent by the mill owner to the market committee’s account. He said that he had received a notification in this respect.