Cabinet meet to announce paddy relief package today

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his team of ministers who have returned to Hyderabad after a dharna in Delhi on the paddy procurement issue will be meeting here on Tuesday.

With no response from the Centre to all their protests, the Chief Minister has decided to hold a cabinet meeting on Tuesday and announce a relief package to the paddy farmers saying that the government would buy the entire quantity of paddy. It is also likely to announce that it would also go in for spot payment for the paddy.

The government feels that peasants were falling prey to exploitation by rice millers. Taking advantage of the stoppage of paddy procurement by the state government, the millers were forcing farmers to sell their produce at less than the MSP, officials said.

It is estimated that nearly 70 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was produced in Nalgonda, Suryapet, Warangal, Karimnagar, Kamareddy, Mahbubnagar and other districts where irrigation facilities are available.

But the rice millers took objection to the government alleging that they were exploiting the farmers. "There may be black sheep here and there, but it is not correct to blame all the millers," said a miller.

Telangana Rice Millers' Association representative told The Hans India that the issue of broken rice and parboiled rice will continue even next year because the government was not addressing the real issue. The majority of millers had expressed their inability to invest in new technology to fortify rice kernels. "The rice millers sought guaranteed procurement and concessions to recover their investment. They have submitted their recommendations long back but the government was yet to respond," he said.

Meanwhile, the officials said the government was exploring options to export the processed rice to other states for different uses mainly for liquor brewing.