‘Supply 11.15 lakh metric tonnes of Custom Milled Rice before deadline’

Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Ravinder Singh directed officials to initiate measures for ensuring the rice millers supply 11.15 lakh metric tonnes of CMR before the deadline

Hyderabad: The Civil Supplies Corporation has a task of supplying 11.15 lakh metric tonnes of Custom Milled Rice (CMR) to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) before March 31 – the deadline set by union government.

This task would be achieved if about 50,000 metric tonnes of rice was supplied to the FCI a day.

To this effect, Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Ravinder Singh directed the officials to initiate measures for ensuring the rice millers supply the quantity of CMR before the deadline.

During a review meeting with the Civil Supplies Corporation department officials here on Saturday, the Chairman said the union government had extended the deadline only for Yasangi season. There was no hope that the union government would further extend the deadline, he said.

In addition to the lack of support from union government and the negligence of officials, there was delay in procuring rice from rice millers, he said.

The inordinate delay in supply of CMR to FCI was resulting in additional financial burden on the corporation. Every month, the Corporation was paying an interest of nearly Rs.200 crore to the banks, he explained.

There was a huge task for the corporation. Nearly 12.61 lakh metric tonnes of rice pertaining to Yasangi season was yet to be received from the millers. Of these, boiled rice component was 6.64 lakh metric tonnes, raw rice component was 4.51 lakh metric tonnes and CSC raw rice was 1.46 lakh.

“Now, we have to supply 11.15 lakh metric tonnes of rice to the FCI before March 31,” said Ravinder Singh, adding in Suryapet 95,000 metric tonnes of boiled rice had to be supplied to the FCI and out of which, till date only 31,000 tonnes was supplied.

In one shift, rice mills can complete the milling of 45,000 metric tonnes and two shifts it would be 90,000 metric tonnes. If the rice millers were delaying the supply of rice to the FCI, why did the corporation officials fail to monitor and this exhibits the sheer negligence, he fumed.