Comments
The ongoing wheat procurement in Punjab is taking its toll on rice lifting as paddy milling has been cut down by 70 to 80 per cent by the state rice millers who have accused Food Corporation of India (FCI) of opting for the wheat crop.
With the state yet to fulfil its commitment to supply 43 lakh tonnes of rice for 2010-11, Punjab rice millers have sought more time for providing the foodgrains due to delay in paddy milling.
“We have not been able to mill paddy as FCI is not accepting rice from us. As a direct fallout of it, paddy milling for the month of April has come down by 70-80 per cent,” the Punjab Rice Millers Association President, Mr Tarsem Saini, told PTI.
Rice millers, who gave 18 lakh tonnes in March to FCI, are finding it hard to deposit for April. Only 5.8 lakh tonnes have been supplied for April which is just 33 per cent of last month’s contribution.
“We are ready to deliver our share of rice but FCI is simply not accepting the same,” Mr Saini alleged.
Punjab is also a major contributor of rice as it contributes close to 40 per cent of output to the Central pool.
Rice millers have also blamed the inadequate storage facility in the state for slow procurement of rice from Punjab.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.