Paddy Procurement Centers to Begin Full Operations Immediately, Orders District Collector B.M. Santosh.

Gadwal : On Saturday, Uttam Kumar Reddy, the Minister of State Civil Supplies Department, held a video conference from the Secretariat in Hyderabad with senior state officials and district collectors from all districts to review the paddy procurement process.

Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy emphasized that the paddy procurement process is of high importance to the government and that district collectors should personally monitor the process to ensure it runs smoothly without any issues. He highlighted that the government has invested several thousand crores of rupees in this initiative and has announced a bonus of Rs. 500 per quintal to encourage the cultivation of fine-quality paddy.

District Collector B.M. Santosh instructed officials to ensure that procurement centers are fully operational as per the district's established plans and to arrange necessary equipment, such as paddy cleaners, at each center. He advised against bringing coarse and fine varieties of paddy to the same procurement centers. Quality standards should be checked at procurement centers before purchase to prevent any losses to farmers. He also stressed the importance of informing farmers to dry their paddy before bringing it to the centers.

The Collector further noted that the government has mandated a bank guarantee for rice millers receiving paddy allocations, and strict implementation of this rule is required. In cases where rice millers do not provide bank guarantees, intermediate godowns should be prepared for secure storage of the procured paddy. The Collector directed that payments to farmers be completed within 48 hours, an unprecedented timeframe, and instructed authorities to implement strict measures at state borders to prevent paddy from neighboring states from entering Telangana's procurement centers.

The video conference was attended by Additional Collector (Revenue) Lakshminarayana, District Civil Supplies Officer Swami Kumar, District Manager of Civil Supplies Vimal, DCO Prasad Rao, and officials from the Agriculture and DRDO departments.