Moga, February 4 (Doaba News Service)- Rice traders in the state have been importing raw rice of poor quality from outside states and mixing it with locally produced rice, the milling of which is in progress these days. It’s strange that this is being done at a time when the state already has a buffer stock of rice over 80 lakh metric tonnes and paddy 95 lakh metric tonnes under the milling process in the state. But rice millers are allegedly mixing quantities of low-priced rice grains imported from other states with FCI stocks and selling the better rice in the open market at higher prices. The entire procurement of paddy in Punjab is sent to private millers for cleaning, shelling and polishing of grains. Millers return the finished product back to the FCI for the central pool. It is learnt that during the past two months, after the rice milling process began in the state, raw rice of various varieties worth crores of rupees is being imported from other states like Bihar, UP, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka by rice millers/traders, the maximum quantities of which are mixed in locally milled rice, and is being given to FCI stocks. This practice is going on particularly in ...
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