Civil Supplies Commissioner C.V. Anand, IPS, has diverted his attention on the old stocks lying in the godowns for years as per the orders of Civil Supplies Minister Etela Rajender.
Due to the old stocks in the godowns, space problem has arisen forcing the Corporation to hire additional space and also causing damage to the fresh stocks due to cross infestation. In this process, the Corporation held discussions with the representatives of State Dal Millers’ Association for disposal of Redgram purchased in May last year and persuaded them to purchase old stocks of Redgram and Redgram Dal lying undisposed. Due to the initiation taken now, the Corporation sustained financial loss to some extent.
The Corporation will get Rs 7.50 crore on disposal of old stock. It purchased 2000 MT of Redgram @ Rs 6930 per quintal incurring Rs 16 crore from the Centre last year as per the orders of Central and State Governments to make available Redgram dal @ Rs 120 per kg. to the poor in view of price rise of Redgram dal ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 170 per kg in the open market.
When tenders were called for milling of 500 MT of Redgram, only one dal miller filed his tender and 335 MT of Redgram dal was received after milling of 500MT of Redgram. The Corporation was able to sell only 11 MT of Redgram dal and released 200 MT to ICDS. Due to the sudden downfall in the rate of Redgram dal in the open market, the ICDS also did not come forward to purchase Redgram dal. Therefore, 134 MT of Redgram dal and 1500 MT of Redgram was lying with the corporation.
The issue of old stocks lying in the godown came to the notice of CV Anand in the meeting held with the in-charges of MLS Points and the Commissioner initiated action for its disposal. When auction was conducted through NCDEX, only one tender was received that too with lesser rate. Due to bumper crop of redgram and downward redgram dal rate, nobody was coming forward to purchase old stock. Hence, the Commissioner held a series of discussions with dal millers and convinced them to come forward taking it as social responsibility as they are also part and parcel of Civil Supplies Department. The dal millers have agreed to purchase 493 MT of redgram @ 3300 per MT, 1008 MT of redgram @ Rs 3100 per MT and 134 MT of Redgram dal @ Rs 4100 per quintal. The Corporation realized Rs 7.50 crore against purchase of 2000 MT for Rs 15.54 crore.
The Commissioner informed that the Corporation sustained a loss of Rs 8.04 crore in redgram dal due to lack of proper supervision, proper marketing planning and due to downward trend of price of redgram dal in the open market. Due to timely action taken now, the loss was reduced to some extent as dal millers were persuaded to agree to purchase redgram to avoid 100% loss. The entire exercise was done with the approval of the government. (NSS)