Growers, millers caught in
cleft stick
By
Yoginder Gupta and Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, Nov 9 —
Paddy growers and rice millers of Punjab and Haryana are
doubly unblessed. Their woes inflicted by the
nature’s fury have been further compounded by the
apathy (either accidental or by design) of the mandarins
of the Union Food Ministry.
First, the growers had to
sell their produce damaged by unseasonal rains below the
minimum support price because the Ministry took its own
time to relax the specifications of the paddy to be
procured by government agencies. But the Ministry failed
to simultaneously relax specification s of levy rice to
be purchased by the Food Corporation of India from the
millers, who are groping in the dark about the price they
should pay to the growers to enable them to make
reasonable profits.
Confusion among the
millers about the levy rice has enabled a handful of
exporters based in Delhi to take full advantage of the
situation. The cartel of exporters have lowered the price
of Grade A rice from about Rs 850 a quintal to about Rs
750 a quintal by slowing down their purchases from the
market and by tightening the specifications.
The FCI is yet to collect
levy from the millers because the Ministry has now
relaxed the specifications of rice and the millers find
it virtually impossible to make rice of the FCI
specifications out of the rain-affected paddy.
This has left the millers
with huge accumulated rice stocks and empty pockets, with
the result the millers have stopped payment of commission
agents and in turn of the farmers. In Haryana for the
first time in living memory, most of the millers shelling
leviable varieties of paddy have suspended milling the
time which is usually considered to be the peak of the
season.
They say they have no more
space to store the milled rice which has to be kept
indoor.
How the government
response to the crisis in making was sluggish is best
illustrated by its policy on levy rice. The rice season
normally begins in mid-July when early varieties,
popularly known as "saatthi" (which matures in
60 days) arrives in the market. The Ministry notified
only on September 16 that no levy would be imposed on
paddy purchased up to September 14. Had the notification
been issued well before September 14, the growers would
have got good price.
After the unseasonal
rains, the State Governments again put pressure on the
Union Food Ministry to exempt rice from levy so that the
millers could be induced to buy the rain-affected paddy.
The millers were divided on the issue. Since the
exporters by that time had formed a cartel and started
lowering the prices, a section of the millers wanted that
levy should be made optional so that they would have two
alternatives. However, another section of the millers
wanted the levy to be exempted. Sources in the trade say
the exporters too did not favour the imposition of levy
as otherwise they would loose their monoply.
Ultimately, the government
decided not to charge levy on rice prepared from paddy
purchased up to October 31. However, the letter came only
on November 3.
There is a difference in
the pattern of purchasing paddy in Haryana and Punjab.
While in Haryana the paddy is almost entirely purchased
by the millers at rates higher than the support price, in
Punjab the millers normally prefer to go for custom
milling of the paddy procured by the government agencies.
However, this year the
Punjab millers also purchased paddy from the farmers
directly. This has created a problem of its own type in
that State. The millers want to mill their own paddy
first so that they can deliver the rice stocks to the FCI
and release the money due to the farmers. On the other
hand the government agencies want the millers to first
mill their paddy. The Punjab Government is insisting that
the millers should mill their paddy and the government
paddy in the ratio of 50:50. The stalemate continues.
The Ministry has relaxed
the specifications of the paddy from 3 per cent damage to
8 per cent damage. The millers say it is surprising why
the specifications of rice have also not been relaxed. Mr
Bharat Bhushan Jain, Vice-President of the Haryana Rice
Millers Association, says that the government should not
expect the millers to produce good quality rice from bad
quality raw material. He says the government must
immediately relax specifications of rice otherwise the
industry would be ruined.
The millers want that the
BJP-led Government should adopt the specifications laid
by the Gujral Government last year. The Gujral Government
had relaxed the specifications of rice under almost
similar circumstances from 22 per cent broken, 2 per cent
damage and 3 per cent discolour to 30 per cent, 3.5 per
cent and 8 per cent, respectively. The specifications
were further relaxed to 4.5 per cent damage and 13 per
cent discoloured grain.
However, this demand is
opposed by the FCI and the Food Ministry on the ground
that last year the corporation was burdened with inferior
quality rice for which there is no taker and the stocks
are still with it.
The sources, however, say
that the FCI is not facing any such problem with the
Haryana rice. Of course, in Punjab unscrupulous millers
took undue advantage of the relaxed specifications and
delivered inferior quality rice to the FCI. For this
situation the FCI cannot absolve itself from the blame.
It failed to keep a check on its field staff with the
connivance of which the delivery of inferior quality rice
was not possible.
Now to unburden itself of
the unwelcome stocks, the FCI has come out with a policy
of open sale of rice. But it has put the condition that
no applicant should apply for less than 1,000 tonnes the
value of which comes to about Rs 75 lakh. The sources say
only big exporters can apply. Another proof of the
exporter-Ministry connivance?
The president of the
Haryana Yuva Beopari Sanghathan, Mr Jai Bhagwan Singla,
alleges that the Ministry seems to be guided either by
"muscle power" (represented by the growers) or
"money power" (represented by the exporters).
He says the Ministry should look towards the problems of
the domestic millers also with sympathy.
The Senior Vice-President
of the Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr N.C.
Jain, says it is regrettable that while framing its
policies the Food Ministry ignores the interests of the
Haryana industry.
According to Haryana
officers, the Ministry has conveyed to the State that it
would be taking a decision on relaxation of
specifications of rice within this week. The Managing
Director of the FCI, Mr S.S. Dawra, told TNS on the phone
that as on today no relaxation in specifications had been
given.
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