Haryana: Absence of dist food official hits rice delivery in Karnal
By Parveen Arora
The delivery of custom-milled rice (CMR) in Karnal has been severely affected due to the absence of the District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) for the past 12 days.
Rice millers, who were allotted paddy by the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, have been unable to deliver rice to the government as the process requires a one-time password (OTP) sent to the registered mobile number of the DFSC for updating the e-Kharid portal and completing other formalities related to milling and delivery.
As per the officials, Ambala DFSC Jitesh Goel has been given additional charge of Karnal and he joined late on Thursday afternoon. So the delivery of rice could not start on Thursday. An official of the department said that a letter has been sent requesting the addition of Goel’s mobile number for OTP generation. “We are hopeful that the delivery of CMR will commence from Friday,” the official said.
Millers pointed out that under the existing policy, 15 per cent of the allotted CMR was required to be delivered by the end of December. However, due to the absence of a DFSC, deliveries to the Food Supplies Department could not commence.
Millers said that they have, however, started delivering CMR of the paddy allotted by Hafed and the Haryana Warehousing Corporation to FCI.
The post of DFSC Karnal had remained vacant since the arrest of the former DFSC by the Anti-Corruption Bureau at the end of December in connection with a case related to Gurugram. Since then, no alternative arrangement had been made to ensure the smooth functioning of CMR operations in the district.
Saurabh Gupta, president of the Karnal Rice Millers Association, said that after the arrest of the previous DFSC, no official was appointed in the district, bringing the CMR delivery process to a halt. He said that from the current season, the government has amended the CMR policy, making it mandatory for millers to submit a fixed deposit receipt (FDR) or a bank guarantee in favour of the procurement agency concerned based on their previous delivery record before rice delivery. Earlier, millers were allowed to deliver CMR without furnishing an FDR or a bank guarantee.
As per the revised policy, millers who own their mills and had completed delivery of the last season’s rice by the end of June are required to deposit an amount calculated at Rs 2,592 per quintal of the total paddy allotted to them. Millers operating mills on lease must deposit 3 per cent of the total cost of the allotted paddy in the form of a bank guarantee.
Gupta said that several millers in Karnal have complied with the revised policy and deposited the required FDRs. However, the delivery of rice against the paddy allotted by the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department had remained stalled due to the absence of a DFSC
This article has been republished from The Tribune.