Govt. gets ready for Kharif paddy procurement with ₹18,250 cr.

Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N. Uttam Kumar Reddy instructed the officials of the Civil Supplies Corporation on Saturday to make fool-proof arrangements for a massive ₹18,250-crore Kharif paddy procurement operation to purchase 65 lakh tonnes of paddy.

“Farmers should neither suffer delays at purchase centres nor face any difficulties in receiving payments”, he said while addressing Additional Collectors, District Civil Supplies Officers, District Managers of TGSCSCL and other officials from across the State at a review of Vanakalam (Kharif) procurement held here on Saturday.

He stated that 8,283 Paddy Purchase Centres (PPCs) would be opened across the State - including 3,180 IKP centres, 4,372 PACS centres and 731 others. He wanted the authorities to open all PPCs by October 1, ahead of the arrival of production scheduled to commence from October 15.

The MSP fixed for paddy was ₹2,461 per quintal for Grade-A varieties and ₹2,441 for common varieties of paddy. Telangana would additionally provide a ₹500 per quintal bonus for seven preferred varieties -- BPT-5204, RNR-15048, KNM-1638, Jaisriram, HMT-Sona, WGL-44 and KNM-7715.

The Minister said the seven varieties were not selected arbitrarily, but the government had studied domestic and international markets and identified varieties capable of commanding better prices. The objective, he said, should ultimately ensure farmers get remunerative prices, whether through government procurement or in the open market.

They were estimating a paddy production of 119.57 lakh tonnes from 57.7 lakh acres cultivation during the Kharif season and the government was preparing to procure 45 lakh tonnes of fine (’sanna’) varieties and 20 lakh tonnes of common (’doddu’) varieties.

The Minister flagged problems relating to transportation and suggested officials to ensure that contractors bidding for transportation actually possess or have assured access to the required number of lorries. Transportation bottlenecks should not be allowed to disrupt lifting of paddy from purchase centres, he added.

Against a total requirement of 16.25 crore gunny bags, 3.50 crore were presently available and the balance numbers were under procurement. Civil Supplies Commissioner M. Stephenson Ravindra, Director S. Shyam Prasad, additional Director Rohit Singh were among the State officials participated.