MSP sought for paddy

Nellore: Leaders of the various farmers associations met here on Thursday and sought involvement of the district administration for protecting interests of the farmers. Ch Koti Reddy from CIFA said that millers were ruling the roost during paddy procurement as the government directed that they provide gunny bags to the farmers. He criticised that millers were collecting extra charges from the farmers and also categorising the A grade stock as B grade.

Reddy stated there was a yield of around 9.5 lakh metric tonnes of paddy this year and the district administration assured to procure the CIFA around 2.5 lakh tonnes of paddy. Till now, it was below one lakh tonnes, he added. Though harvesting has been done, officials are saying they would start new procurement centres now, he quipped.

P Sriramulu, District Secretary of AP Rythu Sangham, said that though millers were exploiting the farmers, officials were keeping mum in the guise of election duties and demanded for immediate involvement of the district officials for supporting the farmers to get MSP. P Hanumantha Rao Naidu, SK Shanwaj, N Narasaiah and others were present.