Protesting against supply of damaged paddy for milling, rice millers in Chhattisgarh have proceeded on an indefinite strike from Tuesday.
The millers said that they would remain on strike until their charter of demands were considered. It was stated that, there were 1,541 rice mills in the State, where custom milling work goes on continuously. Because of excess rainfall in 2012-13, thousands of quintals of paddy stored in the cooperative societies had suffered damage.
The millers said, they were being compelled to mill damaged paddy and instructions were given to them for milling it within two months. Besides, ban has been imposed on the export and import of paddy-rice.
State Secretary of Rice Mill Association Pramod Jain and Vijay Toyal said that they had informed the State Government about their demands. Even then, their demands have not been considered.
In such a situation, they have gone for an indefinite strike now. With the strike, the Government could incur a loss of Rs 100 crore per day, besides thousands of labourers working in the mills were rendered jobless, he said.
The rice millers demanded that the order compelling them to lift the damaged paddy of 2012-13 should be withdrawn, as after milling, the damaged rice would come into the markets and that could affect health of people badly. They have also demanded Rs 40 per quintal support price for the milling of ‘Arva’ and ‘Usna’ paddy, so that the quality of the rice might not get affected.
The other demands of rice millers include increase of time limit for custom milling from two months to six months, withdrawal of ban on export-import of paddy and rice and to stop alleged arbitrary attitude of the officers of Food Corporation of India (FCI).