Minister announces an upcoming launch of an online grievance redressal portal for rice millers

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi held a Press Conference today on the measures taken by the Union  Government to ensure seamless paddy and Custom Milled Rice (CMR) procurement in Punjab State. The Minister reiterated that the target of 185 LMT fixed for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2024-25 will be fully procured and not a single grain of paddy will be left  unprepared. The Minister also announced that an online portal for grievance redressal of rice millers will be launched shortly so that any difficulties faced by the stakeholders can be addressed promptly.

In Punjab, the procurement of paddy officially commenced on October 1, 2024, with 2700 designated mandis, including temporary yards, to ensure smooth operations. Due to heavy rainfall in September and higher moisture content in paddy, the harvesting and procurement were slightly delayed. However, despite a late start, the state is on track now to achieve its target of procuring 185 LMT of paddy by November 2024. All measures are in place to ensure smooth procurement operations in Punjab for KMS 2024-25. As on 26^th Oct 2024, out of 54.5 LMT arrival in mandis, 50 LMT of paddy has been procured. During KMS 2023-24, out of 65.8 LMT arrival, 61.5 LMT paddy had been procured by 26^th Oct 2023. MSP for Paddy(Common) has seen a substantial rise from Rs 1310 /Qtl in 2013-14 to Rs 2300/Qtl in 2024-25.  A total of 3800 millers have applied for registration out of which 3250 millers have already been allotted the work by the Punjab government. More millers are expected to register and be allotted the work in the next 7 days.

To ensure that adequate storage arrangements are in place for the CMR, several high level meetings have been conducted with the Punjab State Government and follow-up actions are being taken up on priority. This includes, speedy evacuation of wheat stock to deficit states, hiring of CWC / SWC Godowns on nomination basis, expediting creation of 31 LMT storage capacity under PEG scheme etc. Out of the All-India Movement plan of 34.75 LMT for the month of October, around 40% i.e 13.76 LMT is allocated to Punjab state. At present around 15 LMT storage space is vacant in Punjab. The delivery of CMR usually begins in December every year and by that time, sufficient space will be available to ensure smooth delivery of CMR by the millers. A detailed depot-wise plan has been prepared to evacuate 13-14 LMT of wheat every month from Punjab until March, 2025. A high-level committee under the chairmanship of  Chairman and Managing Director of Food Corporation of India (CMD FCI) is monitoring the movement plan and storage capacity creation/ hiring on a weekly basis so as to facilitate storage of rice stocks of KMS 2024-25.

There has also been demand from the millers for reduction of the existing 67% OTR (Out Turn Ratio from paddy to rice) set by FCI, citing that the paddy variety PR – 126 has been giving 4-5% lesser OTR than usual.  PR- 126 variety has been in use in Punjab since 2016 and there had never been any such issues reported previously.  It is understood that the primary reason this has been raised is the rise in hybrid varieties that are marketed in the name of PR- 126 in the state of Punjab. It is reported that hybrid varieties have a significantly lower OTR compared to PR – 126. OTR norms prescribed by the Government of India are uniform all over India and are agnostic of the seed variety. Procurement all over the country is primarily based on uniform specifications, commonly called Fair Average Quality (FAQ). Moreover, a study has been assigned to IIT Kharagpur for reviewing the present OTR and Driage incidentals of Paddy and the work is in progress. For this purpose, tests are being conducted in different rice procuring states including Punjab.

With regard to the additional transportation charges incurred by the Rice millers, FCI has delegated power to the Regional level to allow additional transportation charges in case vacant space is not available in the designated depot beyond a waiting period of 15 days. The necessary customization for enabling the same has been made in the procurement portal. This issue has already been resolved to the satisfaction of the millers.