'120 MT PDS rice seized in one day, plans to raid pvt godowns'

TIRUCHY: In intensive raids across the State against the smuggling of PDS raids, the Civil Supplies CID police along with the revenue team have seized 120 MT rice on a single day and the raids would continue at the private godowns and rice mills, said Dr J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Cooperation, Food and Consumer Welfare department here on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting the TNCSC godown here, Radhakrishnan said, in order to prevent rice smuggling, actions are initiated in war footing manner for which a dedicated special wing with 421 personnel including four SPs have been formed. The department has identified a few transit points and continuous monitoring would be made there. On Tuesday, the team could seize 120 MT rice and last week they seized 100 MT rice, he said. "Now, we have prepared to closely follow the big fishes behind the smuggling and we have already arrested s smuggler on Tuesday and the actions would continue," he said.

Stating that the police team along with revenue and district administrations have arrested 111 persons under prevention of black marketing act so far, Radhakrishnan said, last year as many as 11,121 persons in 11,008 cases were arrested and as many as 2288 vehicles were seized in this regard, he said.

Meanwhile, Radhakrishnan said that all the PDS outlets would soon be under CCTV surveillance in a phased manner. "We have also receiving complaints that the rice stocks have been diverted directly from godowns and they would also be monitored through CCTV cover which would solve the problems to a certain extent," he said.

In the meantime, Radhakrishnan said that as many as 722 DPCs have so far been opened through which 1.25 lakh MT paddy has been procured, he said.