23500 Bags of Rice Found on Second Day of Raids...

Reiterating the commitment to check the bogus milling menace, Mr. Bharat Bhushan Ashu Food and Civil Supplies Minister Punjab after the second round of inspections conducted by the department said that bogus billing is rampant but State government will leave no stone unturned to curtail it. He informed that raids conducted on Saturday in the rice mills falling in Ferozepur and Jalalabad constituencies have unearthed 23500 bags of rice stacked in two mills of the area while 91000 bags of illegaly stored rice were unearthed by the departmental teams on Thursday.

                           Paddy and Rice stored at Tata Rice Mill

 Giving details it was disclosed that the Chief Vigilance Officer of the department along with his team conducted a raid at Tata rice mill in Zira where in 15000 bags of grade A paddy( 35 kg each )amounting to 7000 bags of rice and 8500 bags weighing 50 kg each of last year's grade A rice were found illegally stored in the Mill. The owner did not possess requisite documents to validate the sources of the procured paddy and rice.

Similarly in Jalalabad on a tip-off, the team found 8000 bags of rice stored in SV Plywood Factory. The efforts are afoot to verify the owner.  A raid was also conducted at Golden Rice Mill, Zira where in the Miller locked the premises and fled away. Another raid was conducted at Anil Narula Rice Mills in Zira where the owner and his staff were non-cooperative. They misbehaved and manhandled the team of food and civil supply department. During the scuffle the owner locked the mill premises and fled away.

                             Zira without any legitimate purchase documents

However, the staff is keeping a strict vigil over the mill premises as they had spotted huge stacks of paddy/rice in the mill. Food and Civil Supplies Minister said that the involvement of multitude of Millers in the illegal hoarding of previous years rice procured through black market at cheaper price with the intent to circulate the same in the ensuing kharif marketing season  shows that the 'malice is deeply rooted in the system.' We are conducting raids and if they need be a bigger "surgical strike" will be made to purge the system.