Haryana:CM’s flying squad finds 21,700 quintals of paddy missing at three Karnal rice mills

By Parveen Arora

The CM’s flying squad has found around 21,700 quintal paddy missing from the stock allotted to three rice mills for custom milling, indicating irregularities in the paddy procurement and allotment process for the year 2023-24.

The squad filed two FIRs, one at the Taraori police station and another at the Nigdhu police station, against the owners and partners of both mills in that regard. One FIR is being registered against owners of mill situated in Barota village, where the team members conducted raid on Saturday which was going on till late evening.

This paddy was earmarked for processing into rice and subsequent delivery to the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The CM’s flying squad has been conducting raids for the last four days to verify the allotment of paddy stock and stock lying in the rice mills.

Acting on a tip-off, the squad formed various teams and conducted raids at Nigdhu, Bohla and Taraori. Separate teams raided VK Foods at Nigdhu, Ayushman Food Rice Mill at Bohla Khalsa village and PV Foods Rice Mill at Taraori, said Ajeet Singh, DSP, CM’s flying squad Karnal Range.

The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs Department allotted around 8,311 quintals to VK Food Rice Mill, Nigdhu, and after verification, the stock was found complete, the DSP said.

The department allotted around 41,539 quintals to Ayushman Food Rice Mill, Bohla Khalsa, and it returned 1,450 quintal rice after processing 2,165 quintal paddy. Out of the remaining paddy, they found 10,256 quintal missing.

“A case has been registered against the owners and partners of the rice mill under Sections 420, 406 and 201 of the IPC at the Nigdhu police station,” said the DSP.

When the team members inspected PV Foods Rice Mill, Taraori, which was allotted 34,806 quintals of paddy for custom milling of rice, they were informed by the employee that they had processed 432 quintal paddy and delivered the rice to the FCI, he said.

The employee of the mill further informed the team members that out of the total allotted paddy, they had sent 15,500 quintals to another rice mill (Dev Industries Sagga) for processing.

The team members verified the stock at PV Foods Rice Mill and found 1,832 quintals missing. The team members also verified the stock of Dev Industries and found 6,667 quintals missing out of 15,500 quintals.

The DSP said: “We will continue the raids to check discrepancies.”On Saturday, a team also raided Salasar Shyam Sarkar Overseas rice mill in Barota village and verified the stock with allotted paddy record. The team members found nearly 3000 quintals of paddy missing.

The procurement agency has allotted 48786 quintals of paddy, of which it has delivered rice after processing 870 quintals of paddy.

This article was been republished from The Tribune.