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Zero levy system becomes a curse
The decision of the Central government to scrap the levy system has resulted either in most of the mills being closed or are on the verge of closure leaving thousands of families jobless.
Nalgonda: The decision of the Central government to scrap the levy system has resulted either in most of the mills being closed or are on the verge of closure leaving thousands of families jobless.
Out of 270 rice mills in the district, 100 rice mills are concentrated around Miryalaguda town. The zero levy system has become a curse to the rice millers as well as to the hamalies (heavy load carrying labour) and workers.
The rice mills located around Miryalaguda have the capacity of milling 5,000 tonnes of paddy per day. In all, 5, 000 families have been eking their livelihood depending on the rice mills in the district.
As per the levy stem that was in force for the last 30 years, millers used to supply 75 per cent rice from the procured paddy to the government and the remaining 25 per cent was sold in the open market.
The millers had invested huge money to expand their rice. But with the sudden decision of the Centre to scrap the levy system, the millers have now been pushed into a deep crisis.
Talking to The Hans India Miryalaguda Rice Millers Association president Karnati Ramesh deplored that majority of the millers had invested huge amount of money to setup mills by mortgaging their properties in banks and private money lenders.
With the scrapping of the levy system, they had no other option but to close their mills. He said the millers pay Rs 1.5 to Rs 6 lakhs as electricity charges every month depending on the size of the mill.
Taking the present condition in to consideration, the State government should take a decision to exempt collection of the minimum electricity charges and bill only for units consumed
In thepresent situation, the millers would have the work of custom mill from the side of the government. But, the charges for custom miller were very low. The charges for milling of raw paddy are Rs 15 per quintal and Rs 25 for boiled rice. After deducting the Income Tax, storage and transport charges, the millers would actually get Rs 12 for raw rice and Rs 20 for boiled rice milling.
It is not financially possible for the millers to run the mills only depending on custom milling. Hence, the millers were demanding the government to immediately increase the charges of custom milling and take steps for revival of levy system by pursuing the matter with the Centre.
On the other hand, the situation of hamalies and labour working in the rice mills is pathetic as they have been left jobless for the last three months. A hamali Thripati said that it has become hard to find work in the rice mills for the last three to four months. We had no skills to do alternative work. It was severely impacting their economic condition, he lamented.
The managements of the mills have also issued notices to drivers and other staff that their jobs stand terminated from November 1, 2015. A lorry driver G Krishna, who received such notice from the management, informed that nearly 1,000 drivers and cleaners would be losing jobs as the mills were not operational.
By Pillalamarri Srinivas
