He enquired about district wise procurement done so far and the crop expected to arrive at centres and whether the amount was being deposited in bank accounts of farmers without delay.
The district has been witnessing continuous rains for the last four days, leaving the farmers worried. The farmers were waiting for nearly one month for their produce to be procured at several places.
In Karimnagar, about 2.27 lakh metric tons of paddy has been procured from 37,500 farmers through 321 purchasing centres. So far, Rs.414 crore has been deposited in bank accounts of 27,367 farmers.
In a video conference with District Collectors here on Friday, she wanted them to explore ways for faster movement of paddy from procurement centre to mills.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Maheshwar Reddy blamed the State government for the paddy getting wet in the rain and causing loss to the farmers.
Rauthu Sattaiah, a farmer, alleged that the staffers at the centre were secretly stealing around three kilograms of grains per bag by tampering with the weighing machine.
As part of the special initiative, Civil Supplies Commissioner D S Chowhan said the corporation has taken up simultaneous weighing and stacking of the stocks.
As for the paddy exposed to rains, only the Civil Supplies department is able to come to the rescue of the farmers. It has been purchasing paddy soaked in rain to meet the requirement of parboiled rice mills.
The State government could complete procurement of 3.3 lakh metric tonnes during the last three weeks as against less than one lakh tonnes procured by this time last year, he said.
Reviewing the paddy procurement process in the state in the wake of farmers staging protests at Jangaon, he directed officials to cancel the licenses of the millers and traders indulging in unfair practices in purchasing paddy.
Due to the recent Assembly elections, the paddy procurement is learnt to have slowed down slightly with millers capitalising on the situation and securing most of the crop directly from farmers
