212.70 cr dues will be paid soon : Karimnagar

Karimnagar: Telangana Civil Supply Corporation District Manager B Praveen announced that they will clear all for paddy purchased from the farmers in Rabi season.

Speaking to the media here on Tuesday, Praveen said that they have purchased 2,18,542.426 quintals of paddy so far. The total value of paddy purchases is Rs 386.73 crores. Of this, Rs 174.03 crores was already paid to the farmers and Rs 212.70 crores is pending. The data of paddy purchases from the farmers to a tune of Rs 331.44 crores only has been entered into the data.

Agreeing that payments were delayed since May 10, he clarified that it was not because shortage of money but due to technical problems. He said that the government releases Rs six to Seven crores per day to pay.

As many as 211 rice procurement centres were set up in the district and purchase centres have been set up in villages in cooperation with four agencies. Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) has set up 71 centres; Primary Cooperative Society had established 125; District Cooperative Marketing Society has set up 15; and MEPMA established one centre for paddy procurement. IKP has purchased 173466.92 quintals of paddy. Similarly, Primary Cooperative Society collected 130331.660 quintals; DCMS purchased 11983.68 quintals; and MEPMA acquired 1833.337 quintals of paddy from the farmers.

Civil Supply Corporation District Manager B Praveen said that 168 procurement centres have been shut down due to shortage of grain arrivals. The delay in money payment is because of non-entry of farmers' data, he added.

Only farmers are allowed to sell at purchase centres and Civil Supply department officials are asking some documents to separate farmers and brokers. Farmers should produce pattadar passbook, Aadhar, VRO certification and bank account number at the purchase centre. Praveen said most of the farmers sold the grins and told the staff at the purchasing centres of submitting documents later, but they didn't submit them till date.

Money cannot be paid if the farmers don't provide pattadar passbook, Aadhar, bank account number, VRO certification and not enter their data on the computer. In some cases, the data operators are delaying the payment though farmers had produced all the required documents in time. Praveen said that they have taken steps to pay the dues of the farmers, from whom paddy was purchased by Kharif.