Generally people talk about the Central and the State Governments’ responsibility to supply rice by procuring paddy from farmers, but they never think about the husk, bran and broken pieces of rice, which have a market demand but are considered worthless by the Government.
It was alleged by lok Shakti Abhiyan (lSA) president Prafulla Samantara at a Press meet here on Friday. Samantara said both the Governments pay for milling, packing and delivering of rice after purchasing paddy from farmers, but they don’t claim the end products of the rice, as a result of which the State has lost Rs 3,000 crore in last 10 years.
Based on the information collected from the Government sources by RTI activist Gouri Shankar Jain, Samantara said 600 lakh tonnes of paddy were processed to get 400 lakh tonnes of rice between 2004-05 and 2013-14. “Nobody knows where did the husk, rice bran and other materials to the volumes of 200 lakh tonnes disappear which costs around Rs 3,000 crore (as one tonne husk and rice bran costs Rs 1500),” said Samantara.
The activist said the Government is paying all the expenses for processing of rice, unreasonable subsidies in electricity tariff and other taxes, but why the Government forgets to take the end products which have a very good market demand.
“If the farmers had been given the subsidies, prices and other facilities for milling their rice, things would have been different and beneficial to the dying farmers,” said Samantara and demanded a CBI inquiry into the issue.
He further demanded arrest of rice mill owners, political leaders and officers in the rice scam and distribution of the amounts recovered among farmers after recovering the amount misappropriated. He also demanded State security to Jain who has unearthed the scam.