HYDERABAD: As the Central government has extended the free rice distribution scheme till Diwali (November), the demand for food grains from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has increased drastically. This demand seems to be solving the impasse over the share of raw rice and boiled rice to be collected from Telangana.Prior to the Centre’s decision to distribute free rice under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana,
FCI Telangana had communicated to the State Civil Supplies Department that they would not take boiled rice beyond 25 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) and had asked the latter to provide the remaining grains as raw rice. The development comes even as the production of paddy has drastically increased in the State. The FCI had argued that boiled rice was widely available in other States too.
Earlier, after paddy procurement for the Yasangi season started, the Civil Supplies Department had been requesting the FCI to take 10 to 20 per cent raw rice and the remaining quantity in the form of boiled rice. While the discussions were on, the FCI had suspended the collection of custom-milled rice (CMR) and had physically verified the paddy stocks that were available at rice mills and procurement centres.
The FCI is now in a situation to collect all the CMR given by the State government owing to the demand for it from neighbouring States. According to an estimate, there is an immediate requirement of 10 to 15 LMT in Tamil Nadu.