Hyderabad: Taking shelter under technicalities, Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal once again washed his hands off over paddy procurement from Telangana State. “It is the responsibility of Telangana State government to procure paddy and supply rice to the Central government and the Central government has no role in paddy procurement as Telangana is a Decentralised Procurement (DCP) State,” he said.
In response to a supplementary question by Congress MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, the Union Minister again blamed the Telangana government for not supplying rice to the Centre as per the agreement signed with Food Corporation of India (FCI) according to the schedule.
He stated that the Central government had already given four-five extensions for supply of rice pertaining to Yasangi season from the State government, but it was not done. “We are ready to give another extension and request the Telangana government to supply the pending rice stocks at the earliest,” he said.
Earlier, Union Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti gave a written answer in response to the question raised by Uttam Kumar Reddy during the Question Hour. She claimed there has been no delay on the part of the Union government in procurement of paddy crop of Kharif 2021-22. During the States and Union Territories Food Secretaries meeting held on August 17, the procurement period of paddy for Telangana State was fixed from October 1 of 2021 to January 31 of 2022, by the Centre in consultation with the State government. Accordingly, the paddy procurement for Kharif 2021 season has already commenced through State agencies and 16.14 lakh tonnes paddy has been procured upto November 30.
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