A group of members from the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) of the Communist Party of India have alleged mismanagement of space at the Modern Rice Mill of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation at Thirunageswaram on the outskirts of Kumbakonam following an inspection of the mill on July 13.Local office-bearers of AIKS at Kumbakonam received information over the last few paddy cultivation seasons that paddy brought to the Thirunageswaram MRM was stored at CAP storage points near the six covered godowns, each with a storage capacity of around 35,000 paddy bags, and later hulled.Intrigued by the information, AIKS office-bearers reached out to the TNCSC officials, who reportedly told them that CAP storage facilities within the mill premises were opted as the arrival of paddy bags to the mill surpassed the installed capacity of the covered storage godowns.However, on witnessing several hundreds of paddy bags getting drenched in recent rains at Patteeswaram and other TNCSC open storage points, the AIKS office-bearers once again contacted the officials who, sources said, repeated the same answer that paddy being hulled at the Thirunageswaram MRM as usual.The officials pointed their fingers towards the transport contractors for non-movement of paddy bags to the godowns, including the Corporation’s MRM godowns, in Delta region.Meanwhile, photographs of old gunny bags stored at the Thirunageswaram MRM godowns went viral on social media raising concern among the AIKS members and a group of them gathered with their movement’s flags at the Thirunageswaram MRM gate on Monday and insisted that they be allowed to inspect the mill.After prolonged discussions at ‘various levels’, Kumbakonam AIKS office-bearers and some farmers were allowed to visit the facility on the condition that they should not take photographs on their mobiles and should not speak to the media.However, some farmers and media personnel recorded the “pathetic condition” of godowns.The farmers and AIKS members were exasperated on seeing the godowns filled with old and worn-out gunny bags instead of paddy-filled gunny bags and several hundreds of kilograms of paddy dumped on the ground near the godowns, sources said. Published - July 13, 2026 08:47 pm IST