Rice samples from Sangrur found unfit for consumption

Amid the ongoing political tug-of-war between the BJP-ruled Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Punjab, samples of rice sent from Sangrur in Punjab to Banderdewa in Arunachal Pradesh have been found to be “beyond the rejection limit” (BRL) and some were found to be “unfit for human consumption”.

7.51 LMT foodgrain moved out of state

• The Centre has moved 176 trains carrying wheat and 83 trains carrying rice till October 23 from Punjab to other states
• During the month of October, foodgrain to the tune of 7.51 Lakh Metric Tonnes has been moved out

Of the 19 samples collected from the rice stocks in Banderdewa, between September 16-21, 15 samples were found to be BRL and three were unfit for human consumption, beyond FSSAI standards.

Based on this, a 100 per cent sampling of rice stocks stored in all godowns of FCI Sangrur (covering Sangrur, Malerkotla and Barnala districts) and in FCI Banderdewa district, for crop year 2022-23 and 2023-24, has been recommended to check these for their quality.

The letter written by the Joint Commissioner Storage and Research to the Chairman of FCI on October 23, a copy of which is with The Tribune, says that the report of this assessment be submitted within 15 days to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. It has been recommended that the ministry can cross verify the assessed stocks and a complete action-taken report be furnished within “30 days of the issue of this letter”.

Officials in Punjab State Region of FCI told The Tribune that they are waiting for instructions from the head office before starting the sampling of rice stocks of the previous two years. “The samples are tested for quality every month. This rice consignment had been sent to Arunachal Pradesh in July and the sampling was done in September. It will have to be checked if the rice quality deteriorated here or in Banderdewa,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.

The failure of these rice samples from Punjab comes at a time when the paddy procurement from Punjab remains tardy in the fourth week since procurement operations began. The ruling AAP and farmer unions have been blaming the BJP-led Centre for not resolving issues of rice millers and commission agents (no space for storing rice to be milled this year, lowering the out turn ratio mandated for hybrid paddy varieties; restoring the commission of arhtiyas), which is leading to tardy procurement, and creating farmers’ unrest. This rejection of samples will give another handle to the AAP and the farmer unions to hit the Centre as being biased against Punjab.

Dharnas and protests have continued across the state for the past eight days as paddy purchase remains slow. Farmer unions have already announced their plans to intensify the protests from Thursday onwards. The lifting of paddy from mandis has started improving, with 3,253 rice mills (of a total of 5,500) having applied for paddy allotment and 1,600 rice mills having signed agreements. “For the past two days, nearly 2 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy is being lifted from mandis linked to rice mills, and yesterday, release order for 67,000 MT of paddy was given to pick paddy from mandis that do not have enough mills in the vicinity,” Secretary Food and Supplies, Vikas Garg, told The Tribune.

He added that now, there was no problem in getting paddy milled as they had enough millers on board to mill 125 LMT of paddy that is expected to arrive in mandis.

According to the latest report for procurement of paddy, 46.41 LMT has arrived in the mandis till date. Of this, 42.27 LMT has been purchased and 10.85 LMT has been lifted, with 2.36 LMT being lifted today itself.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said, “The procurement season is fast gaining momentum with each passing day. More than Rs 5,600 crore have been credited into the accounts of farmers.”