Govt warns rice mill owners against hiking price

Chennai, Nov 25 (UNI) Tamil Nadu government today warned rice mill owners in the state against hiking the price of high quality rice, citing power cuts.

Food Minister E V Velu, who held a meeting with representatives of rice mill owners association here, said that they should ensure that all sections of the society get rice without any difficulty, according to an official release.

Stating that the state government had received complaints that prices of high quality rice in the open market was hiked, the minister said as people spend about 55 per cent of their income on food, rice mill owners should come forward to bring down the price.

They should not force the government to resort to alternative measures to bring down the price, Mr Velu warned.

Rice Mill owners association President Thulasingam assured that they would fully cooperate with the government and would bring down the prices of rice to the maximum extent, it said.

Mr Velu told the mill owners that the government was providing rice at the rate of Rs One per kg for the benefit of 1.87 crore families in the state.

To ensure that rice mills get uninterrupted supply of paddy, the government was providing an incentive of Rs 100 for ordinary variety and Rs 120 for fine variety, he said.

UNI WS VV 1756