Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu has requested the Tamil Nadu government to step up vigil along the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border to curb rampant smuggling of public distribution system rice.
In a letter addressed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, he expressed serious concern over "welfare programmes being snatched away" by the "rice smuggling mafia" in the two neighbouring states. "The smugglers are transporting PDS rice from Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh. The smuggled rice is sent to the millers in AP who, in turn, polish it and send back to their smuggling partners. That, in turn, is sold at higher price to people at Rs 40 a kilo in the open market or is smuggled to Karnataka," the former Chief Minister pointed out in the letter.
He also listed at least seven road routes through which the rice smuggling was being carried out. "In the past 16 months around 13 cases have been registered under the Essential Commodities Act in four different police stations in Kuppam (the border constituency he represents) in AP. This clearly highlights the volume of PDS rice smuggling taking place on the Andhra-Tamil Nadu border," Chandrababu Naidu noted.
Noting that "lack of vigilance" on the border was aiding the smuggling, he requested Stalin to step up vigil to curb rice smuggling.
The Leader of Opposition in the AP Assembly also wrote a similar letter to the state Chief Secretary requesting that vigilance be stepped up along the AP-Tamil Nadu-Karnataka borders to check the smuggling menace. (PTI)
