Leaders of rice millers’ bodies to meet on Saturday

The All India Rice Millers will meet at the Rice Millers Association Hall on Saturday to discuss the problems that they were facing across the country.

Andhra Pradesh Rice Millers Association president Gummadi Venkateswara Rao told newsmen on Thursday that the leaders of the rice millers associations from all over the country would attend the conference.

All India Rice Millers Associations Federation president Tarsem Saini, general secretary Sushil Kumar Choudary and the heads of the associations from other States would speak on issues concerning the rice millers in their respective States.

“Over 3,000 rice mills in Andhra Pradesh are facing several problems and they would be discussed at the conference. The government is slowly withdrawing paddy procurement from the rice millers and is throwing the market open,” Venkateswara Rao said.

While welcoming the government’s decision to procure paddy directly from the farmer, Rao felt the need to give it to the millers for custom milling by paying the charges. However, he said that the present NDA government had proposed custom milling in all the States but had adopted a different payment system for each State.

“The government is paying Rs 15 per tonne for custom milling in the State while it is paying Rs 85 per tonne in Odisha, Rs 30 in Telangana. The government should consider this difference in payment to the millers and pay equally for all the millers,” he said.

“The government, after purchasing paddy from the farmers, supplies it to the millers for milling and takes 68 per cent rice that would be distributed to the people through the fair price shops. The miller gets the custom milling charges which are very low,” Rao added.

Those attending the conference would request the government to provide subsidies to the millers to upgrade their technology that suits the present day customer. The conference would make an appeal to the State and the Central governments to extend financial support the millers.