TS Govt saves Rs. 107 Crores in Rice purchase

Hyderabad : Commissioner for Civil Supplies C.V. Anand informed that the Telangana Government has saved about Rs. 107 Crores by regular meetings with rice millers for supplying rice to government welfare hostels, Mid-Day Meal and PDS Rice.

Under the leadership of Civil Supplies Minister Etala Rajender, the government bargained with the representatives of Telangana Millers Association and was able to save Rs.25 crores on fine rice Rs. 25 crore and on Rs. 82 crores on raw rice.

As there is a shortage of CMR rice this year for PDS, the department has decided to purchase from the millers an extra quantity of 6.0 lakh metric tons of raw and 1.50 lakh metric tons of fine rice for supplying to welfare hostels.

Only three applicants responded for an online tender-call and the maximum rate for Grade-A quality quoted was @Rs.2650/- per quintal for L1 tender was filed to supply 1.06 lakh mt only. And tender was filed to supply of 1.50 lakh metric tons of fine rice at Rs. 3492 per quintal.

The Civil Supplies Minister met with the representatives of Telangana Millers Association and it was agreed by the latter to supply PDS rice @Rs.2400 per quintal and Raw rice at Rs.3250, steamed rice at Rs. 3300 per quintal if it is supplied in the bags provided by the department.

Commissioner said for this initially it was Rs.1578/-crore as per the tender quote for the procurement of 6 lakh mt. Now it is brought down to Rs.1495.80 crores.

Last year the requirement of rice was 10,000-12,000 mt per month and 1.20 lakh mt for the whole year. Because of the increase in the number of students this year, the department would require 1.50 lakh mt.

The Civil Supplies Department of Telangana Government is focusing more on the quality of rice supplied to the Government Hostels and other welfare schemes like Mid-Day Meal. With a view to supply quality food to the poor students studying in Government Schools, the department has been supplying fine rice for quite some time. But unfortunately a portion of it is getting diverted by some fraudulent traders and vested interests. The quality of rice supplied also was found not up to the mark at some places. The officials of the Task Force and Enforcement wings of the department brought some specific cases to the notice of the Commissioner recently.

After studying these problems in depth, the department has decided to make changes in the system of transportation, quality, quantity (weight) etc., and to keep a constant vigil on it. Earlier the rice was first supplied to ration shops from go-downs and then to Schools from there. "Here after we would supply rice to schools directly from the go-downs," said Anand.

"Accordingly we have made changes to the transport policy to suit all the 31 districts in the State and completed the tender process. So stage II transporters hereafter supply fine rice to the schools directly from the go-downs and the dealers of rations shops would play no role in this transaction," he elaborated.

The Commissioner further clarified that the rice supplied to schools would be packed in a specially designed gunny bags for an easy identification. This helps to put a check on the organizers of hostels from misuse. These bags weighing 50kgs would have big letters like ‘FINE RICE’ on one side and the details like the name of the miller, his area, the date of packing, the quality details, the name of the department etc., on the other side. “We have made this printing of details on gunny bags mandatory,’ explained Anand.