A day after the Punjab government’s Custom Milling Policy (CMP) for the upcoming season starting October 1 permitted millers who delivered 90% of their 2025 paddy allocation to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to receive fresh allocations, millers claimed that their previous year’s stocks are actually higher than projected in the policy.
He urged the government to relax the milling policy to support the rice millers. Most millers can only process about 70% of their paddy, according to Rice Punjab Millers Association president Bharat Bhushan Binta. Consequently, they will likely miss the state government’s 90% target for the rest of the month, making them ineligible for fresh stocks. Tarsem Siani, president of another association representing the state’s rice millers, stated that many stations, including Rampura Phul, Jagraon, Moga, and Samrala, cannot mill and deliver 90% of rice stocks by the end of the month. Milling has reached 78% in Moga, 80% in Ludhiana, 81% in Mansa, and 83% in both Mohali and Kapurthala, according to data from the state food department. the FCI is reportedly forcing millers to sign undertakings to accept freight rates applicable only to their original centres, raising serious concerns While central policy dictates that the FCI covers freight charges for deliveries up to 40 km from a mill.
“The state government and the rice millers association have repeatedly urged the Centre to expedite the movement of pending rice from the state warehouses,” he said. Binta said that millers delivered rice to other districts and states, including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, at their own expense to fulfil their responsibilities. “We have drafted and approved the custom milling policy after taking rice millers’ associations into confidence,” food and civil supplies minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said. “In case any issue crops up in the future, we will take a call at the level of the chief minister because the policy has been cleared by the state cabinet,” he added.
