Ministers visit paddy procurement centre, ask officials to speed up purchase

HYDERABAD

Minister for Civil Supplies and Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has assured the farming community that they would get support price for their paddy stock at the procurement centres and harvesting platforms damaged/drenched in the unseasonal rains this week.

Speaking during a visit to a few procurement centres in Hanmakonda, Warangal, Peddapalli and Bhongir districts on Thursday he stated that the government had procured about 58 lakh tonnes of paddy so far and another 18 lakh tonnes was expected to arrive at the procurement centres over the next few days.

Accompanied by Ministers Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu and Adluri Lakshman Kumar, Civil Supplies Commissioner M. Stephen Ravindra, Mr. Uttam Reddy inspected the procurement process and inspected godowns at different market yards.

He assured farmers that the government would continue to procure paddy without disruption and ensure that even rain-soaked grain purchased by the Civil Supplies Department would the Minimum Support Price (MSP) as per the prescribed norms. He stated that only about 9,000 tonnes of paddy got drenched in rain.

“Farmers will not be let down under any circumstances. The Congress Government is a farmer-friendly one and it stands firmly with the farming community and is committed to procuring every grain reaching the procurement centres”, the Minister said while reviewing procurement operations with District Collectors and senior officials of erstwhile Karimnagar at Peddapalli, erstwhile Warangal at Hanmakonda and erstwhile Nalgonda at Bhongir.

He stated that the State Government had already disbursed nearly ₹11,000 crore directly into farmers’ bank accounts. In view of untimely rains, Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy instructed officials to intensify lifting operations and ensure uninterrupted transportation of procured paddy from centres to rice mills and the operations must be completed before the onset of monsoon.

Asking the officials to make use of every available transport vehicle including lorries, DCMs, trucks and tractors for movement of mainly paddy over the next four-five days to prevent accumulation and exposure to rain. They were told to press into service additional vehicles wherever necessary and maintain round-the-clock monitoring of procurement centres so that no farmer was left to suffer loss due to delays in lifting or transportation.

He also told the officials to improve storage arrangements, deploy adequate manpower at procurement centres and strengthen coordination between civil supplies, transport, police and revenue departments to ensure seamless movement of stocks. He asked them to involve millers defaulted on adhering to the custom milling norms on clearing the principle amounts and interest due from them leaving the decision on penalties to the State Cabinet.