VIJAYAWADA: Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar said the previous YSRC regime had pushed the Civil Supplies Corporation into a debt trap of Rs 36,300 crore. Speaking to mediapersons at the Civil Supplies Commissionerate in Vijayawada on Thursday, he said the YSRC regime not only failed to clear the debts but even left farmers high and dry by not clearing dues to the tune of Rs 1,659 for the farm produce procured from them.
“Prioritising the clearance of those dues, I spoke to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, and `1,000 crore was released for immediate payments to farmers by the Chief Minister despite financial constraints,” he said.
“We have paid Rs 1,000 crore to 49,089 farmers, and the balance amount of Rs 659 crore will be cleared at the earliest.” Out of the total Rs 1,000 crore, Rs 565.95 crore was paid to West Godavari, Rs 121.96 crore to East Godavari, Rs 163.69 crore to Konaseema, Rs 21.92 crore to Kakinada, Rs 19. 96 crore to Eluru and Rs 6.61 crore to Bapatla.
“Our immediate goal is to ensure the financial stability of the Civil Supplies Corporation, clear Rs 10,000 crore debt out of the total Rs 36,600 crore by March 31, and at the same time ensure that ration card holders are provided optimum services, and the primary objective of ensuring food security is achieved. An action plan is being evolved in this direction,” he said.
“For the last one week, I have been checking the illegal export of PDS rice, which happened from the Kakinada anchorage port. We have so far seized 35,404 metric tonnes of PDS rice worth Rs 159 crore,” he said.
On the issue of Mobile Dispensing Units of PDS, he said it was an ignorant decision taken by YSRC regime, putting a burden on the Civil Supplies Corporation as it is incurring a loss of Rs 1,500 crore because of vehicles, and a decision to continue them or not will be taken soon.