AP State govt will compensate losses of millers: Somireddy

Nellore: Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has swiftly responded on the issue of farmers, who were losing 1.5-2 kg rice per each bag to the millers as part of paddy procurement.

Addressing the media at R&B Guest House here on Monday, the Minister said the millers were getting a loss of Rs 630 per putti and hence they were collecting an additional quantity of 1.5 to 2 kg per bag from the farmers.

Now, the state government would compensate the losses of the millers by rectifying the technical error, he stated adding the farmers are happy as they would not be losing any additional quantity of rice. The Minister said orders effecting the change would be issued shortly.

He also said the millers were purchasing the paddy at the MSP of Rs 1,590 for grade-A paddy variety and the stocks were being used as PDS rice. So, the millers were getting low price facing losses as they were being paid at the cost of normal variety, Somireddy stated.

The issue has been brought to the notice of the Chief Minister and he also accepted to support the farmers, the Minister said. He said procurement was done up to 28-30 lakh Puttis till now in the district.

He said they had received 1 lakh Metric Tonnes (MT) of rice from Sri Lanka earlier and trying to get one more order of the same quantity. There is no demand for Nellore BPT 34449 variety rice now when compared to the previous years, the Minister said. It was 3.35 lakh MT procured during 2015-16 and 25,000 MT during 2016-17.

Further, he said millers in the district gave bank guarantees for Rs 30 crore and they were insisting for Rs 150 crore keeping in view of difficulties faced earlier with cheques issued. He said they had formed a committee in which Joint Collector and former MLA Sridhara Krishna Reddy are members to monitor the activity.

He said certificate from the local VRO is sufficient for any problems in e-crop booking. Somireddy refuted criticism of the YSRCP MLA K Govardhan Reddy demanding to reveal loopholes that were giving scope for corruption.