NEW DELHI: The Food Cell police in Erode district are reportedly in the process of dismantling a seemingly organised network involved in procuring PDS rice from family card holders and transporting the same to Karnataka for polishing.
In recent weeks, Food Cell police teams nabbed groups operating in Ammapettai and Bhavani areas. A few days ago, about 4.25 tonnes of PDS rice was seized from a group in Bhavani area.
A lorry, a jeep and a tanker lorry fitted with a slide door to facilitate loading of rice, were seized. Five persons were arrested.
The police are required to maintain extra vigil at two border points with Karnataka: one at Hasanur and the other at Bargur.
The modus operandi of these groups involved in smuggling PDS rice is to procure them through conduits from family card holders for Rs. 3 per kg.
They narrow down on families that are in BPL category, but do not consume the PDS rice.
After fine polishing, the rice is transported back to Tamil Nadu again and sold as a high-variety, Food Cell Inspector Gopinath said.
Sophistication in polishing makes it difficult to determine the inward quality of rice, he said.
The Food Cell police have also determined that many families utilise the PDS rice as feed for cattle and poultry.
Earlier this year, the CID wing of the Food Cell police unravelled discrepancies in the entries of farmers’ names made in registers at some of direct procurement centres for paddy, following complaints that traders were indulging in malpractices.
It was found that some unscrupulous private hullers joined hands with the traders to divert free rice distributed to the poor under public distribution system back to the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation with tacit concurrence of the Corporation officials, in lieu of quality paddy procured from farmers at the DPCs.
