Don’t sell attached assets: HC to millers under lens

Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Monday directed rice millers and traders, facing charges of diverting public distribution system (PDS) rice into the black market, not to sell their assets, which were attached by the state but freed by a single judge, till Nov 5, the next hearing. A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao gave this interim direction while hearing appeals filed by the state govt in respect of five mills challenging the relief given to them by the single judge. The millers claimed that they were not put on notice before the coercive action, while the state said that these millers have defeated the purpose of custom milling scheme and diverted huge quantity of rice to the black market through Kakinada port and they were facing criminal proceedings also for swallowing the rice meant for the poor. They were put under sufficient notice, advocate general A Sudarshan Reddy said, defending the action of the state in taking coercive action against the errant millers. Under the custom milling system, the state directly purchases paddy from farmers through procurement centres and distributes the paddy to rice millers for custom milling. The millers mill the paddy and supply rice to the state and receive predetermined custom milling charges. That rice would go to state and central pools for distribution through the PDS network. "There is clear proof that these millers received huge quantities of paddy from the state and they also admitted that they did not deliver the promised rice to the state and central pools. We are only trying to recover our money. If they receive any relief under the garb of technicalities, then that is a clear abuse of process of law," the AG said.
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