Scrapping of joint custody of paddy demanded

CHANDIGARH, October 1: The coordination committee of Punjab State Foodgrain Agencies, comprising employees of Markfed, PUNSUP, Punjab Sta...

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CHANDIGARH, October 1: The coordination committee of Punjab State Foodgrain Agencies, comprising employees of Markfed, PUNSUP, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation, Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation, and the Food and Supplies Department, at an emergency meeting, threatened to go on strike if their demand of doing away with the joint custody of paddy in private rice mills was not acceded to by the state government.

Releasing the proceedings of the meeting to the press, Ashwani Kumar, spokesman of the committee, and convenors Bhupinder Singh (Markfed), Krishan Sangruri (Punsup), Pawan Mittal (State Warehouse) and Hardev Singh Rosha (Food and Supplies Department) stated that the present joint custody policy of paddy stocks was impracticable and feasible only on papers.

The employees expressed their anguish and resented the attitude of the state government and managements of the agencies who had allegedly misused the so-called joint custody scheme merely to victimise the employees. For the irregularities committed by the rice millers, employees were being made the scapegoats, they said.

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They argued against the usefulness of such a faulty policy. The employees have been served with a chargesheet to the tune of Rs 18 crore which in itself spoke volumes regarding its correctness. Illegal suspensions, dismissals and compulsory retirements were other punishments being meted out to employees of the foodgrains agencies, they alleged.

The employees said a new dimension to the problem had been added with the continuing registration of police cases by the crime branch and Vigilance Department regarding paddy shortage against employees whereas the actual responsibility of safe custody and maintenance of quality and quantity of stocks as per agreements was the sole prerogative of the miller. The government as well as management hesitated to take action against the defaulting rice mills.

As a matter of fact, once the storage of paddy was completed in a rice mill, the employee procures a valid receipt from the miller in token of acceptance of its quality and quantity. The miller thus becomes solely responsible for the stocks of paddy in each respect until the accomplishment of custom milling.

The employees have demanded invoking the Punjab Public Money Act against defaulting millers as in case of banks. The present system of initiating arbitration cases against millers served no useful purpose since no criminal case could be framed under arbitration provisions.

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The coordination committee reiterated its resolve to purchase paddy as per specifications without succumbing to any kind of pressures. Although partially the allotments of rice mills were being made for storage of paddy by agencies, yet the employees would resist storage in defaulting rice mills and without completion of legal formation and execution of agreements. In the event of accumulation of unlifted purchased paddy stocks in a particular mandi for want of storage space, further procurement may be stopped.

The employees have demanded that matching bank guarantees for the paddy stored with miller be obtained to restrain them from pilfering of stocks.