Hyderabad: Telangana Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday, August 4, ordered a comprehensive review of the Custom Milling Rice (CMR) system since the state’s formation in 2014, including a decade-long audit of paddy procurement, rice milling operations and other processes to strengthen accountability across the procurement chain. The minister said the government’s primary objective is recovery of public money and government-owned foodgrain rather than punishment alone, an official release said. Reddy directed officials to intensify efforts to recover government dues, identify systemic weaknesses and introduce far-reaching reforms to ensure that public assets are fully protected. He stressed that every bag of paddy procured under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) programme represents public money invested on behalf of Telangana’s farmers. Under the CMR system, paddy procured by the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation through procurement centres is entrusted to empanelled rice millers, who are contractually obligated to mill the paddy and return the prescribed quantity and quality of rice for supply to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and distribution through the Public Distribution System.