The Kakinada Port has refused to issue a No Due Certificate to the Stella Ship, which arrived in Kakinada for rice loading. The Port has taken this decision in the context of exporting ration rice. Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan earlier has ordered the officials to seize the ship.
However, the officials are hesitating over the ship seizure as only Customs has the authority to seize a ship. A case can be filed only if there are smuggled goods on board. Port officials say that ration rice does not come under the Smuggling Act.
However, they say that there is a possibility of filing a case in the Admiralty Court through the Civil Supplies Department. In the context of the ban on the export of ration rice, the officials are planning to file a case on this issue.
Meanwhile, Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan has taken a dig at the fact that ration rice is being smuggled abroad from Kakinada. He alleged that even after the coalition government came to power, the officials are cooperating with the mafia without changing their methods.
He alleged that the officials themselves are cooperating in smuggling ration rice abroad. He called the DSO, Collector and port officials and asked them what they were doing. He complained that no matter how many times he told the Kakinada district SP, there was no response.
Pawan Kalyan deplored that the Kakinada port has become dangerous and that he would write a letter to the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister in this regard.
Earlier, Minister Nadendla Manohar said that 26,000 metric tons of PDS rice were seized during an inspection in Kakinada last June. He said that the rice mafia is illegally transporting rice from Guntur, Chittoor and Srikakulam districts through a green channel and is transporting it abroad from Kakinada port.
He said that strict action will be taken if PDS rice is transported illegally. Kakinada City MLA Vanamadi Kondababu said that when he was in power, he used to do business in the open and now benamis are doing this business.