KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee’s government has written to the Union government’s Food Corporation of India (FCI), requesting to supply over 1.9 lakh tonnes of rice in February, days before the 2024 Lok Sabha
polls, to run the cheap grain scheme in the state.
The communication with the Centre appears to be significant as the state government is worried about the poor progress of procurement of paddy which might affect the supply of cheap grain to beneficiaries before the Lok Sabha polls.
The progress of paddy procurement started on November 1 after the harvesting of the kharif (monsoon) season that targeted to collect overall 70 lakh tonnes of them.
“The state has procured only 3.38 lakh paddy so far. The goal is to cover 80 per cent of the target by February next year. In 2022, the state government had procured more than 4.50 lakh tonnes by the same period. So there are enough reasons to be worried for the state administration,” said an official at Nabanna, the state secretariat.