Chhatrapur: The district administration Saturday asked the tehsildars to submit the property details of 10 rice millers defaulting in payment of Rs 1.72 crore pending on them towards milling of rice, a report said. The property details include both movable and immovable properties of the millers. This was stated here by district civil supplies officer Pusha Munda to media persons here, Saturday.
Reports said that some millers had lifted paddy during procurement in Ganjam district, but out of them 10 millers did not returned rice after milling. They were asked to deposit the rice stock but they did not respond. Later, they were asked to make payment towards the rice. However, the millers also defaulted in making payment.
Currently, the errant millers owe an outstanding over Rs 1.72 crore on the district civil supplies department. Peeved over their response, the food supplies and consumer welfare department decided to register cases under Orissa Public Demands Recovery Act-1962 (OPDR) against the millers and recover the dues from them. As part of this move, Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange has directed all the tehsildars in the district to prepare property details of the defaulting millers and submit a report to him. The defaulting millers includes two each from Polsara, Khallikote and Rangeilunda blocks while one from Pur usottampur, Aska, Kabisuryanagar and Dharakote blocks.
Meanwhile, the proprietor of one of the rice mill has passed away. As a result, the Collector has directed the concerned tehsildar to submit the property details of his family members and descendants. Reports said, the millers had lifted paddy for milling in 2012-13 financial year. However, some of the millers despite milling the paddy failed in depositing rice for several years. They were repeatedly served reminders asking them to deposit the rice.
Later, the civil supplies department conducted a special audit and decided to recover money instead of rice from the defaulting millers. However, the millers continued playing truant and did not deposit the money
