Telangana: Paddy grains worth Rs 5.9 Cr swindled in Asifabad

Sleuths of both Vigilance and Enforcement inspected a Sai Balaji Agro Rice Mill and found that over 69,394 bags of paddy grains were swindled at Venkatraopet village in Sirpur (T) mandal on Monday night. The value of the grains was assessed to be Rs 5.90 crore.

Vigilance District Manager Narasimha, who led the sleuths, told newsmen said that 2,174 bags out of 38,265 bags, allocated to the mill for milling in 2022-2023 Rabi season, while barely 122 bags as against 42,131 bags given to it in 2023-24 Kharif season were found in the mill. The remaining bags were diverted.

Recently, Additional Collector (Revenue) Dasari Venu found that 36,091 bags of paddy grains were misappropriated in Srilaxminarasimha Rice Mill at Vempalli village in Kaghaznagar mandal. The value was estimated to be about Rs 3 crore.

Officials of the civil supplies department said that 1.62 lakh tonnes of paddy grains were given to 20 mills in the district in 2022-23Yasangi season. The deadline for handing over the rice is March 1. Only 8,000 quintals of rice grains were supplied by the millers so far. Doubts are being raised whether the mills would provide 1.53 metric tonnes of grains within three days. People requested officials to carry out similar inspections in the other mills as well.

In September of 2022, 8,399 quintals of PDS rice were diverted at a Mandal-Level Stock point. A senior assistant of the revenue department Durgam Gopinath was placed under suspension for his role in the irregularities in November of the same year.

This article has been republished from Telangana Today.