Punjab CM Seeks Centre's Intervention on Rice Miller Demands

Chandigarh, Oct 1 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday sought an intervention of Union Consumer Affairs Minister to accept the state rice millers' demand for shifting wheat and rice out of Punjab for creation of adequate space for storing fresh paddy crop.

In a letter to the Union Minister, Mann said generally Food Corporation of India (FCI) receives milled rice by March 31 but during Kharif Marketing Season 2023-24 but as the central agency could not provide space for the milled rice, the delivery period had to be extended up to September 30.

Under these circumstances, millers of Punjab are reluctant to lift and store paddy, which will be coming to the mandis during KMS 2024-25, said Mann.

Millers have been emphasising that it is necessary that every month at least 20 lakh MT metric tonnes of rice and wheat are shifted out of Punjab from the covered storage space.

As food godowns all over the country are full, the government of India will have to come out with some strategic solutions, stressed Mann.

He asked the Union government to ask the consuming states to consider advance lifting of rice to help the FCI in order to evacuate rice from Punjab.

Mann said 120 LMT rice is expected to be delivered in the central pool in the forthcoming season, creation of only 90 LMT space till March 31, 2025 would not be sufficient.

He suggested that certain other measures like sale of rice to bio-ethanol manufacturing units at subsidised price, liberal lifting under OMSS (open market sales scheme) and others are also required to be taken urgently so that 120 LMT space required to complete timely delivery of rice of KMS 2024-25 is created in Punjab.

Mann said rice millers have informed that in the past, they were allotted space for delivery of rice within the same milling centre and such centres were usually within 10-20 km of the mills.

However, Mann said last year due to space constraints, the FCI allocated space for delivery of rice, which in many cases was more than 100 km away, but no transportation charges were paid to them.

Millers want to be adequately compensated and reimbursed additional transportation charges in case space is allocated outside their milling centre, said Mann.

Mann asked the Union government to compensate millers in case the milling goes beyond March 31 on account of shortage of the space with the FCI.

The CM also said millers have also expressed their concern about out turn ratio (OTR) of hybrid varieties, adding that they have requested that scientific studies be conducted to ascertain the actual OTR (ratio of paddy to rice conversion).

Mann said almost all the demands of the millers are genuine so the Centre should consider these demands sympathetically and resolve these issues on priority.

He said if the issues of the millers are not resolved on priority, the farmers in the state will face undue hardships in the ensuing paddy procurement season, "that may lead to unwarranted law and order situations, which we should avoid in this sensitive border state".