Paddy procurement to commence in Telangana from April 11

To ensure there was no inconvenience to farmers, 7,100 procurement centres were being set up across the State

Hyderabad: A day after Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao decided to set up the Yasangi paddy procurement centres, the State administration has swung into action and the procurement will begin from Tuesday.

To ensure there was no inconvenience to farmers, 7,100 procurement centres were being set up across the State. Telangana was the only State which was procuring the stocks in both the Yasangi and Vanakalam seasons from farmers.

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These details were shared by Finance Minister T Harish Rao, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy and Civil Supplies Minister G Kamalakar at a meeting here on Monday.

As part of the meeting, the Ministers held a video conference with District Collectors and directed them to make elaborate arrangements for the paddy procurement. They were also informed that district wise paddy procurement would be reviewed next week.

To ensure there was no delay in payments to the farmers, officials were directed to upload the procurement centre-wise details online immediately.

Specific instructions were issued to the officials to complete the Custom Milled Rice (CMR) receipts from rice millers by April 30. The Ministers warned that any delay or negligence would not be entertained in terms of CMR receipts from rice millers henceforth.

Rice millers were also directed to complete the CMR supplies pertaining to the previous season and then commence the supplies of the current season. All the rice millers, who had not participate in CMR supplies last season, should be involved in the Yasangi season procurement, the Ministers directed the officials.

The Additional Collectors were instructed to identify intermediate godowns in respective limits, besides educating the farmers to get only dried paddy to the procurement centres.

Year after year, the paddy yields were increasing drastically in the State. In 2014-15, Rs.3392 crore was spent towards paddy procurement and in 2020-21 financial year, it had increased to Rs.26,600 crore. This substantiates the rise in paddy cultivation and yields in the State.

Despite six times increase in paddy procurement in the last nine years, there was only two times rise in the milling capacity in the State. Considering this, officials should chalk out an action plan to complete the CMR receipts from millers without any delay, the Ministers said.

Officials were also directed to intensify vigil at checkposts on the borders and arrest paddy arrivals from other States. They were also instructed to strengthen the existing checkposts.