Telangana: Congress government sets record in grain procurement in southern states
Hyderabad. Hyderabad: The Congress Government has created a new record of purchasing grains from farmers and making payments within three days. According to officials, so far this season, Rs 10355.18 crore has been deposited to 8,35,109 farmers. The government purchased wet grains at the procurement centers after strict instructions from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. The Civil Supplies Department had taken adequate precautions to ensure that farmers do not suffer due to strong winds and unseasonal rains. Jagital, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Peddapalli, Siddipet, Sircilla, Suryapet, Yadadri-Bhongir, Sang-Gareddy, Nirmal, Mancherial and Jangoan districts were at the forefront in the purchase of grains. Officials said that this year the government has increased the number of paddy procurement centers. Earlier the centers used to open in April. This year the government started purchasing paddy about two weeks ago i.e. from March 25 itself. This time at least 7,178 grain procurement centers have been opened for the Rabi season. Out of these, procurement was done at 6,345 centers.
An official said, “Till June 7, 47.07 lakh metric tonnes of grain has been procured in the entire state. The Civil Supplies Department estimates that the grain procurement process has been completed at many places and it will take ten more days for the grain to reach the procurement centers.” The official said that all the districts have been instructed to keep the centers open till the end of this month, so that the farmers who sow the crop late do not face any problem.
The Civil Supplies Department had initially estimated that this year the procurement would be around 75.4 lakh metric tonnes. But due to the price being higher than the support price in the market and the competition of private traders and procurement at a better price, the estimate of grain arriving at the centers has decreased.