After nearly two months of uncertainty, the Centre has agreed to resume procurement of custom-milled rice from Telangana. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has written a letter to the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the States Civil Supplies Corporation, informing him of its decision to resume the procurement of rice.

The FCI stopped the procurement after finding discrepancies in the stocks at some of the mills and the State’s failure to distribute the rice that it lifted from the Central pool under the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).

Under the scheme, the poor get a ration of 5 kilograms of rice per head. Though the State lifted 1.90 lakh tonnes of rice under the scheme for April and May 2022, it failed to distribute the same.

With the FCI stopping the procurement of custom milled rice, the State realised its fault and agreed to distribute the rice. It wrote a letter too to the Centre, informing about the revival of the distribution of PMGKAY rice.

Piling stock

Meanwhile, the stoppage of procurement by the FCI had resulted in the accumulation of huge stocks in the mills, choking the storage space.

With the aggregate stocks mounting to 94 lakh tonnes, the State has decided to auction about 10 lakh tonnes of paddy that was damaged in the recent rains.

With the issue snowballing into yet another political row, the FCI has acted on the State’s letter and agreed to revive the procurement.

The FCI alleged in the letter written to the corporation that “the state lifted 1.90 lakh tonnes of rice for the months of April and May for the PMGKAY scheme but failed to distribute the same to beneficieries.”

It also said that no concrete action taken by the State government against the millers that were found to be erring in the inspection.

“We have received communication from the State government that it has resumed distribution of PMGKAY rice and that action has been initiated against the erring millers,” it said.

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