A day after the Centre agreeing to resume paddy procurement after a gap of six weeks, about 2,600 rice mills have commenced clearing of the stocks.

“Milling activity has resumed. But, we have asked the Centre to give us more time (up to August end) to make up for the time lost in the last six weeks,” Ganpaa Nagendra, President of the Telangana Rice Mills Association, told BusinessLine.

A delegation from the association met the Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal to submit a memorandum on the issues being faced by them.

“The Minister has agreed (to extend the dealing for supplying the milled rice),” he said.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) had stopped procuring custom-milled rice from Telangana after finding discrepancies in stocks. It also found fault with the State Government for not punishing erring millers and non-distribution of PMGKAY (Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana) rice to the poor.

Meanwhile, unprecedented rains and floods have partially damaged the stocks, forcing the government to consider selling 10 lakh tonnes in auction.

The millers said that they are supposed to deliver 63 lakh tonnes of custom-milled rice more to the FCI.

“If we run at the full steam and FCI accepts the produce continuously, it will take at least 12 months to honour our commitment. The immediate priority, however, is to mill about 5.41 lakh tonnes of paddy and deliver 3.68 lakh tonnes of rice to the FCI,” he said.

Labour shortages

The millers, however, face a daunting task. A majority of workers have left for other States looking for jobs as the milling activity had come to a grinding halt about two months ago.

“Due to non-availability of skilled labour locally, the rice mills can’t run continuously. We need to spend large amount of money on power bills and maintenance of the mills,” the association said in the memorandum submitted to the Minister.

Cross-fire

The millers have been caught in the cross-fire as the State and Central Governments engaged in a war of words over the procurement.

After nearly two decades, the State has agreed to supply raw rice to the FCI from the rabi produce as against the practice of supplying boiled rice.

“We await the recommendations of the committee set up by the State government on the likely losses due to the poor conversion rate in the milling of rabi rice,” a miller from Nalgonda said.

Paddy produced in the rabi season is found to be brittle as it is exposed to the punishing temperatures in March and April. Unlike in the paddy produced in kharif, the rabi yields are lesser.

The millers said they have up to 50-70 days due to the stoppage of procurement and verifications of the mills by the Central authorities.

“We need more time to supply the rice to the FCI,” the association said in the memorandum.

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