FCI rice sold at Dimapur
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 04 2013: Even though rice brought from Dimapur FCI godown are meant for distribution to people at subsidised rates, the same commodity has been turned into a profitable merchandise as many trucks loaded with rice never arrive at Imphal but sold the same off at Dimapur itself.

Sources informed that the practice of selling rice at Dimapur rather than bringing the subsidised commodity to Imphal is known to FCI officials.

It is suspected that some powerful and influential persons are involved in the unethical practice of selling subsidised rice at Dimapur at inflated prices.

One major contributing factor for this practice of forfeiting people's share of subsidised rice for the benefit of a handful of persons is absence of adequate godowns where rice brought from Jiribam and Dimapur are to be stocked.

Sometimes loaded trucks have to wait for as long as 10 days waiting for their turn to unload rice at Imphal.

This entails a big loss to truck owners.

As FCI godowns located at Sangaiprou and Koirengei are full to their storage capacities, loaded trucks are turned into standing godowns for days.

Some truck owners even unload the rice at their own homes so that their trucks could leave for the next trip.

It is an obvious fact that all truck owners desire to make as much trips as possible so that they can earn maximum for transporting FCI rice.

Some of the truck owners, irri-tated by the situation where their trucks are made to stand in queue for days just to unload, started looking for other means to maximise their earnings.

Subsequently, they took up a new trade of selling the subsidised rice at Dimapur markets at inflated prices soon after the trucks are loaded at FCI godown.

After selling the rice, the trucks would be loaded with other merchandise for sale in Imphal.

At Imphal, some truck drivers load their vehicles with whatever quantities of rice they can buy from markets before reporting at Sangaiprou or Koirengei godown.

At Dimapur, price of rice ranges between Rs 18 to Rs 20 per Kg and this variety of rice is what is distributed to people at subsidised rates under schemes like APL, BPL, AAY etc.

On the other hand, central issue price or FCI price (of rice) as fixed by the Government of India is Rs 8.30 per Kg -for APL, 5.65 per Kg for BPL and 3.50 per Kg for AAY.

Retail price of rice as fixed by the CAF&PD Department, Government of Manipur is 8.80 per Kg for APL, 6.15 per Kg for BPL and 3.50 per Kg for AAY.

The huge variation between the central issue price or the price fixed by CAF & PD Department and the price of rice at Dimapur markets is another factor for the rice transporters to indulge in the shady but highly profitable practice of selling off the rice at Dimapur.

Generally, the to and fro journey between Imphal and Dimapur for transporting rice takes four days at the most.

But there are many trucks which do not come back to Imphal though they are loaded with rice almost a month back.

FCI suffers no loss even if the loaded trucks do not report for the rice loaded in the wayward trucks can be recovered.

According to rules, FCI has the authority to recover two bags of rice for the loss of one bag from the concerned transporter.

The recovery can be done from the security deposit made at the time of Signing transport contract or from the bills for rice transportation, said the sources.

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