Ensure no delay in purchase of paddy: Niranjan Reddy

Officials told to deploy more vehicles to shift paddy from procurement centres to mills

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Monday directed the officials concerned to take all measures to prevent any delay in the purchase and transportation of paddy from farmers. He wanted them to deploy more vehicles for shifting the paddy from the procurement centres to the mills on a priority basis.

In a video conference with the officials of Jogulamba Gadwal, Wanaparthy and Nagarkurnool districts here, the Minister stated that during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Minister
K Chandrashekhar Rao was giving lot of support to farmers and procuring the paddy crop. “Under such circumstances, there should be no scope for any mistake that would cause losses to farmers and bring bad name to the State government,” he asserted.

The Minister also instructed them not to reject the paddy brought to the procurement centres on the pretext of not registering for crop booking. He assured to initiate departmental action if there are any issues with regard to crop booking, at a later stage. Amid requests from farmers to purchase maize crop in some districts, he assured to take up the issue with the Chief Minister.

Niranjan Reddy asked the officials to initiate necessary measures for resolving the issue of shortage of Hamalis for loading and unloading the paddy into the trucks. He pointed out that there were complaints about removing huge wastage from the paddy procured and instructed the district Collectors as well as the district civil supplies officers to take necessary action in this regard.

Covid-19 measures

Meanwhile, the Minister advised people with Covid-19 symptoms to immediately get themselves tested and voluntarily undergo home isolation. The officials were directed to take measures for creating the necessary infrastructure and tackle the spike in Covid-19 cases as well as submit the indent for Covid-19 kits being supplied by the State government. He wanted them to strictly take up door-to-door fever survey and also provide the best possible treatment for Covid patients in their respective districts to reduce congestion in Hyderabad.

MLAs Jaipal Yadav, Ala Venkateshwar Reddy, Marri Janardhan Reddy, Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy, Beeram Harshavardhan Reddy, VA Abraham, Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy, district Collectors, health and civil supplies officials from the districts of Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool and Jogulamba Gadwal, attended the virtual meeting.

26 lakh tonnes procured so far

Despite the spike in Covid cases across the State, paddy procurement is being carried out smoothly. As on Sunday, the Civil Supplies Corporation procured over 26 lakh tonnes of paddy worth Rs 4,906.96 crore from farmers and cleared bills to an extent of Rs 1,635 crore.

The State government has proposed to open 7,183 procurement centres across the State. So far, about 6,366 centres have been opened and new centres are being opened based on the harvesting of paddy being taken up in those respective areas. Against an estimated yield of about 1.35 crore tonnes, around 94.81 lakh tonnes of paddy is expected to arrive at the procurement centres for purchases.

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