Few mills come forward to take up CMR in Mancherial

Very few mills have come forward to take up the process of custom milling rice (CMR) following an unprecedented condition set by the State government to submit 10 percent of bank guarantee against the cost of grains in the district.

Mancherial: Very few mills have come forward to take up the process of custom milling rice (CMR) following an unprecedented condition set by the State government to submit 10 percent of bank guarantee against the cost of grains in the district.

Paddy crop was raised in 1.56 lakh acres in this Vanakalam season in the district. Officials estimated that the district would record a yield of 3.26 lakh metric tonnes. A total of 317 centres were identified to procure paddy grains. The district saw procurement of 12,906 metric tonnes of paddy from the farmers so far.

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In order to curb defaulting of CMR by the mills, the government set the condition to provide a bank guarantee of 10 percent against the cost of grains to be milled. The condition was introduced for the first time. The defaulting mills are required to submit a guarantee of 25 percent against the cost. This rule has apparently dampened the spirit of the millers.

The district has 19 boiled and 35 raw rice mills. However, barely 13 mills showed interest to be engaged in the process of CMR due to the condition enforced by the government. A major portion of the mills was not willing to submit a written undertaking to pledge the bank guarantee, surprising the officials.

“The mills are not coming forward to be involved in the process of CMR as they incur losses due to the new condition of submitting the bank guarantee. The rule forced the millers to stay away from taking up the process. The mills can easily make profits by milling grains of farmers instead of milling grains allocated by the government,” an owner of a mill said.

A total of 39 mills defaulted on 9,058 metric tonnes of rice grains relating to Yasangi and Vanakalam seasons between 2019 and 2022 the district. The value of the grains defaulted by the millers was assessed to be around Rs 32 crore. The Revenue Recovery Act was enforced against eight mills for defaulting the grains. A miller was arrested for defaulting on rice grains worth Rs 17 crore in Bellampalli.