FCI inespections of rice mills delaying paddy procurement: Harish Rao

Siddipet: Finance Minister T Harish Rao has termed the Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials’ inspection of 2,990 rice mils in Telangana at a time when the paddy procurement is underway as a conspiracy of the union government.

Speaking to news reporters after a visit to Agriculture Market in Siddipet on Thursday, the Minister has said that the inspection of FCI is delaying the paddy procurement process in Telangana. Saying that the Centre took a decision not to procure Yasangi harvest from Telangana, he has informed the farmers that the Bhartiya Janat Party (BJP) led government is trying to create hurdles in paddy procurement even though the Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao has decided to procure paddy by spending over Rs 3,000 crore from State government’s exchequer. In the name of inspection, Rao said that the FCI authorities were making inspections halting the unloading of paddy from lorries. Since the delay in unloading is resulting in a delay in procurement and the paddy is also getting damaged by rains, the Minister said the BJP led government is eventually trying to malign the image of the TRS government for political gain.

He said that the inspection saw hundreds of lorries waiting in queue lines before the rice mills across Telangana. Since such large scale inspections were never carried out in the past in any parts of the country in Independent India, Rao said that the FCI authorities were seizing the mills to create problems in the paddy procurement process. Stating that they were not opposing the inspections, the Minister has suggested the FCI carry out the inspections after one month when the paddy procurement of Yasangi would complete.

Since the Paddy brought to procurement centres was drenched in rainwater, Rao has said that they have made enough arrangements to ensure the paddy is dried up at procurement centres. He further said that the millers will purchase the paddy. Saying that they have made available 600 paddy cleaners and 4,000 tarpaulins at 421 procurement centres, Rao suggested the farmers and procurements centre to ensure the paddy is protected from rains.

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