Rice millers’ body resents working of FCI employees

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, Nov 19

A delegation of the Punjab Rice Millers’ Association, led by national president Tarsem Saini, on Monday met the General Manager (GM) of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to air their grievances over the working of the FCI staff at the grassroots level. They also presented a memorandum of demands regarding the problems being faced by the millers.

Press secretary of the association Nakesh Jindal said the millers discussed various issues with the GM and urged him to accept the weight of rice as per the weighing bridge.

They alleged that on the pretext of a price cut due to high moisture content, the technical staff were blackmailed the millers as it was done manually. To bring transparency in moisture content cut in rice, electronic digital meter should be installed at all FCI depots where rice is accepted. They also demanded that sufficient technical staff and space should be provided to accept and store the rice as millers have to wait for long. Besides, it would help in completing the rice delivery process by March 31.

He said the millers sought relaxation in norms fixed by the FCI for getting 67-kg rice from 100-kg paddy to 62 kg to save the industry. Due to unseasonal rain at the maturing stage of paddy, the moisture content in the paddy had gone up to 22 per cent against the prescribed limit of 17 per cent. The millers apprehend that the outcome ratio may fall even below 62 kg. He said still most of the paddy was stored in open due to which moisture level was not coming down.

He said the GM assured the delegation to do the needful.