Revanth Reddy Asks Kishan Reddy For CBI Probe Into Paddy Procurement

TPCC president Revanth Reddy today wrote an open letter to Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy demanding that the latter initiate a CBI inquiry into the role of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and other important leaders of the State government in the Custom Milling Rice (CMR) procurement "scam".

The TPCC chief alleged that irregularities were taking place in the paddy procurement and the supply of the CMR to the FCI by the State government.

He also alleged that the important leaders of the ruling party had joined hands with rice millers.

Stating that the Union minister was aware of the recent field-level inspections conducted by the officials of the FCI from March 22 to 24, he said that the details about the scam had come to the fore during the inspection of the officials.

He told the minister that the inspection was related to the paddy stocks belonging to the 2020-21 and 2021-22 Rabi seasons.

He said that the FCI officials had found that 4,53,896 bags of paddy allotted by the State government under CMR were missing from the godowns.

He said that the market value of the missing paddy was around Rs 45 crore, and that the total quantity of the paddy was 2,26,948 quintals.

He alleged that the rice allotted was being sold under the CMR category in the open market instead of being supplied to the FCI.

He claimed that the FCI officials had found irregularities to the tune of 30% of the total allotted quantity across the State.

Pointing out that Kishan Reddy had said that the State government had not yet supplied 8.34 lakh metric tonnes of paddy to the Centre so far, he said that the inquiry of the FCI officials seemed to confirm a scam.

He said that a scam worth Rs. 400 crores would come to the fore if the inspection of all the 3,200 rice mills was done by the FCI officials.