Civil Supplies Minister orders audit of CMR operations since 2014
HYDERABAD The Telangana Government has ordered an audit of paddy procurement, rice milling operations for supplying custom milled rice to the Food Corporation of India
HYDERABAD The Telangana Government has ordered an audit of paddy procurement, rice milling operations for supplying custom milled rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), recoveries, legal proceedings and enforcement measures since formation of the State in 2014 to strengthen accountability across the procurement chain. Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday instructed the officials to put in sustained efforts to recover government dues, identify systemic weaknesses and introduce far-reaching reforms to ensure that public assets were fully protected. He issued the instructions at a high-level review meeting that covered procurement operations over the last 10-12 years, including the quantity of paddy procured, CMR receivable and delivered, district-wise and mill-wise defaults, pending recoveries, vigilance investigations and legal proceedings against defaulting millers.
The Minister reiterated that the government’s primary objective was the recovery of public money and government-owned foodgrain rather than punishment alone. Officials informed him that while legacy defaults account for a major share of outstanding liabilities, the immediate priority was recovering dues long overdue from the default millers. Multiple recovery options including cash payments, return of paddy and delivery of fine rice would were being pursued simultaneously to maximise recoveries, the officials told the Minister. He stated that the government had already made significant recoveries after allowing defaulting millers a limited window to settle their liabilities. Officials were directed to prepare a mill-wise, time-bound recovery plan covering every pending case. Stating that every bag of paddy procured under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) programme represented public money invested on behalf of Telangana’s farmers, Mr. Uttam Reddy said paddy procured by the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation was entrusted to empanelled rice millers, who were contractually obligated to mill the paddy and return the prescribed quantity and quality of rice for supply to the FCI and distribution through the Public Distribution System.
A majority of millers had honoured their commitments but a small section had defaulted over the years by delaying deliveries, failing to return rice, diverting government stocks and violating the contractual obligations, the Minister said. Director General of Vigilance and Enforcement D.S. Chouhan and Commissioner of Civil Supplies M. Stephen Ravindra presented a detailed review of inspections, raids, criminal cases, recoveries and prosecutions relating to CMR defaults. The Minister instructed V&E to undertake comprehensive verification of government stocks across the State through physical inspections of rice mills, reconciliation of procurement records with available stocks, verification of stock registers and investigation of suspected diversion of government-owned paddy and rice. Policy reforms Apart from reviewing past defaults, the government has initiated an overhaul of the regulatory framework governing CMR operations.
The BriefWire