Telangana govt launches last-minute paddy procurement drive after 50-day delay

The Telangana government has launched a 10-day special drive to accelerate paddy procurement amid criticism over delays, pending payments and distress sales. Officials are under pressure to procure an additional 20-25 lakh metric tonnes during the ongoing Yasangi procurement season.

Hyderabad: Nearly 50 days after paddy harvesting began across Telangana, the Congress government woke up from deep slumber and launched a 10-day special drive to speed up paddy procurement. Due to the delayed action, the Congress is not only burdening officials with massive targets in a short span, but also plotting to reduce procurement budget effectively.

The Congress government has been drawing criticism from farmers and the Opposition over delays and poor planning during the peak procurement season for Rabi (Yasangi). Though the government managed to procure around 50 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy over the past month, officials are now under pressure to procure another 20-25 LMT within the next 10 days. The sudden push comes amid farmer protests, unseasonal rains and procurement delays in several districts.

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Farmers have been complaining about delayed lifting of paddy, shortage of gunny bags, lack of transport vehicles and pending payments for several weeks. Even though harvesting for the Yasangi season started in late March, procurement operations picked up only after mid-April.

Earlier this month, Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy announced a procurement target of 90 LMT against an estimated production of 1.41 crore metric tonnes. He stated that the government allocated Rs 21,501 crore for Minimum Support Price (MSP) payments and arranged 8,575 procurement centres, 18.75 crore gunny bags, over 6,200 vehicles and lakhs of tarpaulins for smooth operations.

However, after a review meeting on Sunday, the Minister revised the expected paddy procurement to 70-75 LMT, effectively lowering the procurement target by 15-20 LMT. The government also admitted that only Rs 8,750 crore had been released so far towards MSP payments.
Official figures showed that by May 23, around 58.79 LMT of paddy had arrived at procurement centres, but only 50.01 LMT had been procured. About 8.78 LMT remained pending, while another 16 LMT is expected to arrive from districts where harvesting commenced late, in the coming days.

The reduction in procurement estimates has strengthened allegations made by senior BRS leaders that the government was intentionally delaying procurement to force farmers into distress sale of their produce, effectively avoiding the burden of MSP payments and the promised Rs 500 bonus to farmers, on the government.

Official sources said despite the huge targets set by the State government, only around 60-65 LMT is expected to be procured by the end of 10-day deadline. They said that due to delayed procurement, farmers resorted to distress sales of their produce at a loss and effectively reduced stock arrivals at procurement centres.

“Of the 50 LMT paddy procured so far, around Rs 8,750 crore have been disbursed towards payments to farmers for crop of around 38 LMT. Another Rs 2,200 crore payment is pending and will be cleared before the end of this month. For the latest crop to be procured over the next 10 days, payments will be cleared by mid-June,” a senior official said.