The country’s small and medium-scale rice millers and paddy farmers yesterday stormed into the Paddy Marketing Board and demanded that it releases paddy stored in their warehouses to the millers.
The millers charged that the Board is responsible for rice prices that have gone up to between Rs 90 to Rs 95.
The board is selling paddy stocks in government warehouses to brokers at Rs 43.65 per kilo. They sell them to the mills between Rs 53 to Rs 55, the millers said.
He said they (the councilors, the millers and the farmers) met the Paddy Marketing Board chairman and asked him to release stocks in government warehouses to the millers so that they can convert and release them to the government so that they can sell rice to the consumer at Rs. 70 or less.
The Board has 200 000 metric tonnes of paddy in its warehouses, he said.