Govt to buy 37L MT paddy this season

Vijayawada: Civil supplies minister Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao said the state government would start depositing cash in the bank accounts of farmers from May 20 for the paddy procured from them. He said the state government had decided to procure 37 lakh metric tonne paddy this season at the rate of Rs 1,940 per quintal for common variety and Rs 1,960 per quintal for Grade A variety.

Speaking to media at the Secretariat in Velagapudi on Thursday, Nageswara Rao said the government so far procured 14.37 lakh metric tonne paddy in the state and made arrangements to procure the targetted quantity.

He said the government is directly purchasing paddy from the farmers in a transparent manner without any role for millers. The government would deposit cash into the bank accounts of the farmers, who sold the paddy to the government. The government is also paying transportation expenses, hamali charges to the farmers through the primary agriculture co-operative societies (PACs), he added. The minister said paddy is being bought with only objective of helping the farmers. He said 5.47 lakh farmers have completed EKYC and 1.52 lakh farmers are yet complete. He said the instructions were given to the joint collectors and the civil supplies department officials to complete the process of EKYC conducting the special drive. Civil supplies commissioner Girija Sankar said the government can pay the amount for the procured paddy to farmers if they completed the EKYC process. He said the permission was given to procure paddy with 17 per cent moisture. The state government wrote a letter to the Central government requesting for more relaxations in purchase of paddy, which was damaged in recent Cyclone Asani. Civil Supplies Corporation managing director Veera Pandiyan said the instructions were given to the officials to complete the process of EKYC. He said there is no hurdle to purchase the paddy in the state.