Overview
- Kerala’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister announced Monday that state officials have begun inspections of private rice mills accused of unfair weight deductions and failing to meet the Central 68% outturn ratio.
- The government said it will evaluate creating modernised, centralised procurement and processing centres run by Supplyco to reduce reliance on private millers and protect farmers from exploitation.
- To unblock operations the administration has reverted PRS loan disbursement to an SBI-Canara Bank consortium and raised the loan ceiling from ₹1,200 crore to ₹1,600 crore to ease financing bottlenecks.
- Officials plan technical fixes including web-service integration between the Supplyco portal and the bank consortium so payment updates reach banks promptly and farmers’ credit records are not harmed.
- The minister reported outstanding liabilities of ₹702 crore owed to farmers and said ₹320 crore from the Centre is pending until Supplyco completes overdue audited accounts, which the state has ordered to be finished within six months.