Vigil has been intensified by the Food Cell wing of the Police Department to check smuggling of PDS rice at two Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border points of Burgur and Hasanur in Erode district.
Though the police have been able to intercept and seize consignments of PDS rice, smuggling of rice continued to be carried out by groups operating in Bhavani and Ammapettai areas.
According to official sources, it was a challenging task for the police to establish complicity of the smugglers in the crime since they buy rice from the beneficiaries for slightly higher than the subsidised prices.
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The same rice is polished in mills in Karnataka and brought back to be sold at market prices. The smugglers have conduits who source rice from the family card holders who are eligible but prefer not to consume it.
While a large portion of rice procured from the BPL beneficiaries is smuggled to Karnataka, substantial quantities are also diverted to the cattle-rearers in the rural parts for use as animal feed.