Telangana State Civil Supplies tackles storage space woes, ferries rice to Kerala godown

Hyderabad: The Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Telangana Civil Supplies department have taken a joint decision to tackle the storage problems faced by the Custom Milled Rice (CMR) reserves in Telangana State.

For the first time in the country, it has been decided that the rice after milling would be shipped directly to the other States through the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) without storing it in godowns.

On Saturday, 2,500 metric tonnes of boiled rice in a rake (80 containers) from Sangareddy district was shifted to FCI godown in Kochi, Kerala.

The State Civil Supplies department has repeatedly appealed to the FCI to allocate the required godowns for rice storage in Telangana. Due to lack of storage space in the godowns, department faced finance and other problems, especially in the case of boiled rice.

The Civil Supplies department purchased 77 lakh metric tonnes of grains in Kharif and Rabi this year. Of the 37 lakh metric tonnes purchased in Rabi and 40 lakh metric tonnes purchased in Kharif, the State will hand over the surplus rice to the FCI.

Though the rice millers are ready to hand over the rice, due to the delay of FCI, the Telangana government is financially burdened.

State Civil Supplies Commissioner Akun Sabharwal has met with FCI General Manager Ashwini Kumar and other officials and conveyed the seriousness of the situation. The FCI officials agreed to the wagon movement directly to overcome the storage problem.