Hauler Mill business has now proved to be a business of loss and many of them are now on the brink of closure.
According to mill traders Shivprasad and Rajkumar Devangan, the hauler mill business had suffered because of the government scheme of giving rice at cheap rate.
Earlier farmers used to take paddy for pounding and after harvesting, the millers hardly got any time to take their meals. But now, they are sitting idle even in the season.
Under the Government scheme, farmers are getting rice at cheap rate and on the other paddy is being purchased at support price by societies at villages.
Farmers sell out their paddy to societies. Other people also not taking interest in pounding paddy and because of that the business has suffered a lot. He said that many hauler mills had been closured and the remaining on the brink of closure.
Nikhil Kumar and Vinod said that wheat flouring has seen a decreasing trend in comparison to earlier times, as people are getting rice at cheapest rate. On the other, packed wheat flour of different companies is available in the market and people prefer to buy packed wheat flour than purchasing wheat and then flouring it, as it is time consuming also. Now it has become difficult to run their families depending on the hauler mills, they said.
During the last few years, power tariff has been increased leaps and bounds. Along with domestic, the tariff of commercial connections have been increased. The rate of pounding and flouring is much less in comparison to power tariff and because of that profit in this business is very less. Now the businessmen are considering to increase the rate of pounding and milling of paddy and wheat.
The millers are angry over the neglect of the government. They said that it is a good scheme to give cheap rice to the people, but the government should pay attention to the situation of hauler mill businessmen also. To save the hauler mill business, the government should provide cheap electricity, interest free loan for establishing mill etc. The government should pay attention toward all sections of people, they said.