Kishan asks FCI to buy all paddy from Telangana

Hyderabad: After a couple of months-long tug of war with the Centre over the procurement of paddy for the current Rabi agriculture season is all set to go smoothly giving hope for the farmers to sell their paddy at Minimum Support Price (MSP).

A series of meetings was held on Saturday at the highest levels both at the Centre and the State to ensure that the paddy procurement during the Rabi is hassle-free.

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy revised the procurement of paddy from Telangana with the FCI top officials, and the State Civil Supplies Minister Ganguala Kamalakar held a meeting with the FCI officials at Hyderabad over the procurement of paddy during the Rabi.

The meetings took place following the State Civil Supplies Commissioner V Anil Kumar wrote a letter to the Centre on April 13, to supply 40.20 LMT of paddy up to June 2022, for which, the State government will be opening 6,968 procurement centres across 32 districts. The state government in its letter said that the milling of paddy to supply rice to the FCI would go till March 2023.

During his meeting with the FCI officials, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture, G Kishan Reddy asked them to procure any quantity of raw rice being supplied from Telangana. He also assured to take up the issue of procurement of paddy with the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goel.

At Hyderabad, State Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar held a meeting with the FCI General Manager, Dipak Sharma on the procurement of paddy during the Rabi season.

He urged the FCI officials to take into consideration the special circumstances faced by the farmers in cultivating paddy and asked not to trouble them in the name of a higher percentage of broken rice. He said that the State government with the directions of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has decided to procure paddy bearing an additional financial burden. Hence, he asked not to cause inconvenience to the farmers in the procurement of raw rice in the name of a higher percentage of broken rice. He assured the FCI official that the raw rice as per the quality standards would be provided and a letter to that effect has already been given to the Centre.

He also urged the FCI officials to procure 5.25 LMT pending supplies of the last agriculture season in the form of fortified boiled rice.

Besides, the Minister sought for providing adequate racks and storage and a review of the same period extended to the States procuring lesser and higher quantities of paddy. He said Telangana which has been providing higher quantities of rice is being given only an extension of one month. The Minister said that paddy in Telangana is cultivated to an extent of 35.80 lakh acres and about 60 LMT of rice is likely to be procured. He said that about 15 crore gunny bags were required for the procurement and the State government has written a letter to the Jute Corporation of India for the supply of gunny bags.

He also asked officials to prevent the rice from coming from other States and present recycling with effective vigilance.