despite that the respondent authorities issued a direction ordering to make up for any procurement shortages at their own cost. From the initial stage of the procurement process, the petitioner regularly informed the respondents through written communications that the transportation/lifting of paddy had not commenced in accordance with the guidelines, which would severely impact and disrupt the procurement process. Though several oral and written requests were made by the petitioner urging the authorities to lift the paddy within the timelines prescribed under the State Policy, no action was taken by the concerned authorities and the respondents have shown no interest in complying with the guidelines/Policy of the State. The Collector, Mohla directed the recovery of the alleged paddy shortage from the petitioner to achieve a “Zero Shortage” status. Further, directions have been issued to register an FIR against the petitioner and to recover the “dryness shortage” directly from the In-charge of the Paddy Procurement Center(s). The State Government extended protection to Rice Millers by permitting an allowance of 5% for “dryness shortage” (weight loss due to moisture evaporation), while completely denying any such dryness allowance to the Paddy Procurement Centers. Though the Policy provides timely lifting of paddy from the centers, but the Millers deliberately delayed lifting to gain a double advantage on weight shortages. This entire resultant shortage is then unfairly penalized and imposed upon the Centre Incharge and Cooperative Samiti. The State Government and the Marketing Federation are well aware that Millers do not lift paddy from Procurement Centers within the time frame prescribed under the Policy. In this regard, the State Government had previously granted consent to the Marketing Federation to accord a 3% dryness shortage benefit to the Cooperative Societies in the year 2022. The petitioner herein is aggrieved by the arbitrary directions issued by Respondents, whereby the said authority is compelling the petitioner to fill
