A day after the Cabinet approved “The Punjab Custom Milling Policy for Kharif 2022-23”, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said that the new Milling Policy has been introduced with historic improvements aimed at bringing about transparency and equity in the milling operations of paddy.
“The Milling Policy has recognized that recycling of PDS rice from other states is a serious problem and has introduced strict measures to curb this malpractice. For the first time ever, the procurement portal has been integrated with the billing portal of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), which will enable the procurement agencies to monitor the consumption of electricity units in a particular Mill and compare it with the quantity of rice claimed to have been milled by the rice sheller,” he said.
Mann said that any discrepancy shall automatically point to an attempt by the Miller to deliver cheap rice purchased from the open market or PDS and will result in blacklisting of the Mill.
The Chief Minister said that the Department has introduced a Vehicle Tracking System for all trucks, ferrying paddy from the Mandi to the Mill. “Online gate passes have also been introduced which will ensure that these are issued only once the GPS location and the photograph of the truck has been captured by the Mandi staff. GPS location of the truck operator shall also have to match the GPS location of the mandi before the gate pass is issued,” he said adding that these steps are expected to severely curb the resale of PDS rice coming in from other states.
“To eliminate any harassment by the procurement staff, faceless inspections for registration of mills as well as allotment of mills to procurement agencies have been introduced. The Miller, as and when he is ready for inspection of the mill, shall apply online to the Department to conduct the inspection,” he said, adding that thereafter, manual selection of staff to inspect any particular Mill has been completely eliminated, and now the inspecting staff shall be selected randomly through a software.
The Chief Minister said that this randomisation shall ensure that the identity of the inspecting staff is unknown to the miller as well as officials of the procurement agencies. All inspections have been made online and these will have to be mandatorily completed within the mill premises itself, with the GPS coordinates of the inspecting staff requiring matching with the GPS coordinates of the mill, said Mann adding that as a result, no miller shall now be called to the government office with regard to finalisation of reports of inspections.
To ensure transparency and to check any irregularities in paddy allocation to rice shellers of varying capacities, the policy has done away with a complex system of incentives and formulae by which the entitlement of paddy of any mill was determined. This has now been replaced by a numerical limit beyond which no Rice Miller will be given any further paddy, said Mann adding that within this ceiling, the Miller shall now be at complete liberty to apply for as many release orders as he desires.
The Chief Minister added that for first time ever, the Rice Millers will also have to declare, on a real time basis, any privately purchased stocks of paddy lying in their mills and any discrepancy detected at any point of time shall invite automatic blacklisting of the Mill. “This is expected to further check the malaise of recycling of PDS rice during the season,” he said.