Due to the constant vigil by government authorities, ration rice smugglers have found an ingenious way of smuggling ration rice in powder form.
On a specific tip off, cops of the Food Cell Department zeroed in on smugglers in two places and arrested them on Sunday. Smugglers have started grinding ration rice into powder and selling it to wholesale and retail merchants, locally and in neighbouring states. In local markets the powdered rice is used by roadside eateries to make various breakfast items and in other States it is used in cattle and poultry feed.
Although this method of smuggling rice was going on for some time, the Food Cell and Revenue Departments officials did not take action because of procedural hitches. The onus of proving that the powder was made from ration rice is on the officials. But, the Food Cell authorities gathered information about grinding mills where large quantities of rice was milled and zeroed in on a few smugglers.
In one grinding unit in Erumapalayam, the Food Cell police seized a bag of ration rice in powder form and arrested Gobi (23) who transported the bag. At Omalur, a man identified as Nallathambi (28) was caught transporting 500 kg of rice powder in a mini van from a grinding mill.
Comments
0 comment