Paddy shifting stalls due to vehicle shortage in Karimnagar

Paddy shifting in Karimnagar district has been delayed due to shortage of vehicles, unloading bottlenecks at rice mills, and lack of hamalis. Farmers fear crop damage from unseasonal rains as thousands of bags remain piled up at procurement centres.

Karimnagar: Shifting of paddy to rice mills from procurement centres has been delayed due to various reasons. Subsequently, scores of packed paddy bags have appeared in procurement centres.

Shortfall of vehicles as well as delay in unloading of bags at rice mills are said to be the reasons for the present situation. However, farmers are worried about their produce in the wake of unseasonal rains.

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Nearly 6.50 lakh metric tonnes of yield was expected as the paddy was cultivated in 2.75 lakh acres in the district in the Yasangi season. Expecting to procure 3.67 lakh metric tonnes, officials have opened 318 paddy purchasing centres across the district. Right from the opening of centres to transporting the crop to rice mills staff has been deployed.

Initially, the government had decided to procure the paddy by following the new method of uploading track sheets immediately online and transporting the crop to rice mills in vehicles which have GPS facilities.

The government had decided to implement the system to check irregularities in procurement. However, it was withdrawn following strong resistance from the farming community.

Though the procurement was started finally, it was delayed due to shortage of hamalis and other reasons. Now, transportation has become a problem. Shortfall of vehicles such as lorries and tractors is delaying the process.

Delay in unloading of paddy at rice mills is also worsening the situation further. It has taken one to two days to unload a lorry load of paddy at rice mills. So, the vehicles have to wait at rice mills till they are unloaded. As a result, the vehicles are unable to return back to PPCs immediately to pick up fresh loads.

Choppadandi MLA Medipalli Satyam, who found a number of packed paddy bags in PPCs during his visit to Gangadhara mandal on Saturday, spoke with the Collector Chitra Mishra over the phone and asked her to send lorries to shift packed paddy immediately.