Mills hold rice scheme hostage, pose problem for Bengal government ahead of 2026 Assembly polls
By Pranesh Sarkar
The Bengal government may face hiccups in its cheap grain scheme in the run-up to the 2026 Assembly polls since it is yet to receive 66 per cent of rice that was supposed to reach the state’s warehouses from rice mills which process the paddy procured from farmers.
“The state government has procured 47 lakh tonnes of paddy from the farmers so far. Some 40 lakh tonnes were sent to rice mills for extracting rice between December and January. But the government is yet to receive 66 per cent of the rice from the rice mills,” said a government official.
Usually, the mills send back the rice after milling within a month of receiving the paddy. The state government uses that rice to run its cheap grain scheme.
“If the mills delay the delivery of rice, the state could face trouble in running the scheme smoothly ahead of the 2026 polls,” said a senior government official.
According to a rough estimate, the state government would get back 26 lakh tonnes of rice from 40 lakh tonnes of paddy. Around 65 per cent of the weight of the paddy is converted into rice.
“But the state has received only around 9 lakh tonnes of rice so far…. This is a cause of concern as the state needs about 3 lakh tonnes of rice every month to run the cheap grain scheme,” said a senior bureaucrat. “With the rice in stock, the state can run the scheme for the next one-and-a-half months,” he added.
If the mills don’t send the rice in adequate quantity by the next few weeks, the state might have to write to the Centre seeking the supply of rice from the central pool to run the scheme. Last year, the state had to depend on supply from the central pool to run the cheap grain scheme twice.
In a recent meeting held with district officials, the food and supplies department made it clear that districts like North Dinajpur, Purulia and Murshidabad topped the districts that did not get enough rice from the mills.
“North Dinajpur did not receive 75 per cent of the rice it was supposed to get from the mills after sending paddy to them, Purulia 67 per cent rice and Murshidabad 68 per cent,” said an official.
Officials said that while many mills were running late in sending milled rice to the state, 16 mills had not even sent one installment.
Rice mill owners said that they were trying to prepare rice from paddy as early as possible.
“We are facing some trouble as weather conditions have delayed the milling of rice…. We will try to ensure that the state gets the required quantity of rice every month to run the cheap grain scheme. If we supply the entire quantity in one go, the state would not be able to store it properly as it does not have space in the warehouses,” said a rice
mill owner.
The district-level officials of the food and supplies department have been asked to monitor the situation every day and keep warehouses ready so that rice can be stored properly as soon as the mills start sending supplies.
This article has been republished from The Telegraph Online.