KHANDIGARH: Paddy worth crores of rupees is set to go down the drain this year also with government agencies persisting in their wayward manner of purchase and the haphazard manner of sending it to the millers in Punjab without entering into any contractual Agreement and the state government expressing its helplessness in the matter. Ironically, no lessons have been learnt after 16 lakh tuns of paddy worth about Rs 600 crore that rotted in various god owns and mills in the state last year. And in the 1993.94 season, paddy worth about Rs 100 core had been rendered unfit for human consumption due to storage problems and the unattended difficulties faced by the millers.

The Punjab Government apparently refused to take the millers” threat seriously and entered the market without arming itself with any positive proposals and written agreement for milling, and all this when the godowns could not admit any more grain. The millers have stuck to their guns. they refuse to relent unless the government accepts their demands or implements the recommendations of the Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, which, along with two other government agencies, the Paddy Processing Research Center (PPRC), Thanjavur, and the 11, Kharagpur, had submitted its report in September, 1994 to the Food Ministry. “Instead of accepting the recommendations, the ministry formed another high-powered panel with the Managing Director of the FGI as its head,” the millers report.

The main demand of the millers is that the yield stipulation of 68 kg of rice from one quintal of paddy, being impossible to meet, should be lowered. This specification, set about 20 years ago when the production was much less and not many used advanced methods of farming or milling were used, have become outdated they contended, The millers are also sore over the levy norms. They are required to give 75% of processed paddy as levy to the government at a price which is Rs 50 per quintal less than the price at which government procurement agencies Supply rice for the public distribution system (PDS), Besides, the millers are demanding hike in the breakage content in paddy meant for levy. They ‘want it to be raised to 30% from 1823% laid down by the government. They also want the moisture content norms to be revised. “On the whole, if the government implements the CFTRI report, all our major demands will be met. But the Central Government is not sincere at all,” says B,M. Thulka, Chairman of the Rice Miller

Association.

“Due to the deadlock between the millers and the government, more than 75% of about2,000ricemillsin Punjab are lying closed, throwing out of job more than 2.5 lakh persons and locking up around Rs 1500 crore.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 27, 1995