Punjab rice millers demand compensation, lifting of curbs
Published on: December 14, 2021.
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The blacklisted rice millers in Punjab who were supplied PAU 201 variety have outstanding dues of at least ₹500 crore
At least 400 rice millers facing curbs by the Punjab food and civil supplies department since 2010 demanded compensation and lifting of sanctions imposed on them. (HT File Photo)
According to mill owners, they are being made to suffer for no fault of theirs. They claimed they were supplied paddy variety PAU 201 from 2007 to 2010, which had a higher quantity of discoloured grain and broken rice than the permissible limits, due to which the Food Corporation of India (FCI) refused to take the delivery of rice and the mills were told to bear the loses.
“Failing to pay for the losses, the state food department has imposed sanctions by blacklisting our firms. Since 2010, we are not allotted paddy for custom milling and we are without business for almost 11 years,” said Davinder Bansal, who used to run a mill in Malerkotla.
The blacklisted mills that were supplied PAU 201 have outstanding dues of at least ₹500 crore, he said, adding that despite repeated requests at all levels in the state government, “no one is concerned about our cause”.
According to Vijay Jindal, who owned a now blacklisted rice mill in Dhuri: “Procurement agencies were fully aware of the dubious quality of PAU 201. They knew that this variety will not meet FCI specifications, yet it was pushed to us for shelling. Even standard procedures like proper sampling and lab testing were not conducted.”
It was in 2007-08, when Punjab Agricultural University introduced this variety as the one which needed less water and had a better yield. At the same time, it had certain disadvantages like greater percentage of breakage and discolouration of the rice. As both the state government and PAU pushed its cultivation, it was grown on large areas by farmers
The rice millers added that a committee from the Centre visited the state to take feedback about the variety and recommended its discontinuation and compensation to rice millers. “The Centre agreed to share the compensation with the state government and released ₹277 crore, but the proposal was never moved forward by the state government,” said Bansal. According to him, two governments have changed in the state, but there is no solution to their problem.
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