Begin paddy procurement from today, beef up border checks:Mantris to DCs

Hyderabad: The Ministers, including T Harish Rao, Gangula Kamalakar, and S Niranjan Reddy, have directed the district collectors to commence the paddy procurement centres from Tuesday onwards and set up check posts at borders to ensure that paddy from other States does not enter Telangana.

The Ministers have asked the district collectors to prepare action plans and make necessary arrangements for purchasing paddy from the farmers in the State. They have also instructed officials to pay special attention to collecting the Rabi season CMR (custom milled rice) from the millers by April 30. Any delay in handing over the CMR will not be tolerated. Rice millers have been advised to hand over pending CMR and take paddy for this season. The Ministers also announced that millers who have not participated in CMR till now will also be participating from this Rabi season. Telangana is the only State in the country that procures the entire paddy grown by its farmers in two seasons. From Tuesday, additional collectors should buy the paddy by preparing action plans at the district level. Officials should identify intermediate godowns for grain stocks and submit suitable proposals to the government. The Ministers want the officials to ensure that the farmers are made aware of taking only dried paddy to the purchase centres. Paddy yield and procurement in the State have been increasing. Paddy procurement was worth Rs. 3,392 crores in 2014-15 and reached Rs. 26,600 crores by 2020-21. In nine years, the purchase of paddy increased six-fold while the milling capacity has just doubled.