Telangana State to purchase rain-soaked paddy

Jangaon/Mahabubabad: Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao assured farmers of procuring paddy despite the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the region. In a review meeting that focused on paddy procurement and coronavirus pandemic here on Saturday, he said that Telangana is the only State in the country to procure paddy from the farmers.

"The State so far procured 73,886 MT of paddy and deposited nearly Rs 57 crore to the farmers' accounts. There may be a bit of delay in the procurement, but the government will procure the entire yield from the farmers," he said. The government will purchase paddy soaked in recent untimely rains, the minister said. He warned the rice millers not to harass the farmer in these difficult times.

Referring to the Covid-19 situation, the Minister said that the government had already undertaken a door-to-door survey to identify the cases in the Jangaon district. So far, 5,510 persons with Covid-19 positive have received medical kits. Errabelli said that seven ambulances have been kept ready to rush the patients to hospitals.

"Oxygen beds, Remdesivir injections and other drugs have been made available. This apart, efforts are on to increase the number of oxygen beds in the district. Isolation centres have been set up in all the mandal headquarters," the minister said. A control room has been set up at Jangaon and the needy can call on phone number 8247847692 to get assistance from the authorities.

District collector K Nikhila, MLAs Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy, Thatikonda Rajaiah, ZP chairman P Sampath Reddy and municipal chairperson Pokala Jamuna were among others present.

Later, the minister inaugurated the Covid-19 ward at the primary health centre (PHC) in Thorrur of Mahabubabad district. He also inspected the PHC at Devaruppula.