Gondia News.
Twenty six rice mill-owners in the Gondia district have not returned the processed rice they were to return, the cost of this 90 thousand quintal rice is Rs 16 crore. Almost a year has passed since they had received the rice for processing.
When Adivasi Corporation started criminal proceedings against the rice-mill owners, it was suppressed with political clout. Adivasi Development Corporation, every year purchases paddy from the nearby farmers at the support price and is given to rice mills for processing. The transportation cost is borne by the Corporation. All the bye products like husk etc are given to rice owners only. In addition to that they also get processing charges. So rice mill owners return only 67 kg for every quintal to the Corporation.
Last year, 2012-13 all the 26 rice mill owner were allotted , after processing of which they were supposed to return 88952.72 quintals to the Corporation. Shree Santaram Rice Mill, MIDC Gondia, Pankaj Modi & Co. Gondia, Ramdeo Rice Mill Baradtoli, Jai Jalaram , Tumkheda, Hari Om Traders Gondia, Rajkamal Rice Mill, Karanja, Dadijee Industries Sawari Gondia, Shanti Rice Mill Gondia, ShivKrupa Steam Gondia, Sai krupa Rice Mill Khamari Gondia, and many others are allegedly involved.
The processed rice should have been returned to the Corporation on or before December 31, 2013 after the extension of time limit. After this the Corporation was supposed to confiscate the bank guarantees of the rice mills. The criminal proceedings were started after that. But as the rice mill owners are hand in glove with political big wigs, the criminal proceedings were stopped.
Now Food and Civil Supplies Department has again given extension to these rice mill owners. Now these owners are asked to deposit the rice with the Food Corporation of India. The District Supply Officers will inspect the grains and after that it will be distributed through public distribution system. But again this process has not started.
The reality is that the mill owners as soon as they received the rice, sold it in the open market. The concerned officers are well aware of this. But they cannot take any action as the mill owners wield political clout.
It is now expected that the detailed enquiry will be conducted and the culprit will be brought to book. Naturally such is the demand from all the quarters.
