VIJAYAWADA: After allocating 50 per cent of nominated posts to women, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday announced 50 per cent quota for fair sex in the appointment of market committee chairpersons. Apart from this, half the members of market committees will be women.
The process of their appointment will be completed by the end of October. The State government has provided 50 per cent reservation to SC, ST, and OBCs in the market committees.
The Chief Minister also decided to constitute a committee to look into the losses in district co-operative banks and undertake a study by a prestigious organisation on the ways of strengthening the banks.
He instructed officials to digitize primary agriculture co-operative committees’ records and complete the task within a specified deadline.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, during a review of marketing and cooperative departments, said, “The cooperative banks should be able to decide the prices during cultivation of crops.’’
On the issue of remunerative prices to lentils, pulses, tomato and cotton crops, he said that farmers should not be compelled to sell their produce to middlemen.
“Ensure that the middlemen system is eradicated completely,’’ the Chief Minister instructed the officials.
“The government is also planning to announce prices of those crops that have no minimum support price (MSP). The prices will be notified at village secretariats and farmers can complain to agricultural assistants for necessary action if they fail to get MSP,’’ Agriculture Minister K Kanna Babu told reporters after the meeting.
Calling for the transformation of Rayalaseema region into a millet hub, the Chief Minister asked the officials concerned to set up a millet board by the end of October.
The proposed board will take care of marketing and devise agricultural practices to be adopted by farmers for higher millet productivity in the region.
Jagan Mohan Reddy enquired about onion stocks in the State in view of spiralling prices.
Officials told the Chief Minister that till now 660 metric tonnes of onions have been imported from other States. This helped in bringing down the onion price to `32 per kg, they said.
The Chief Minister also told the officials to help tomato farmers get remunerative price for their produce through market intervention and creating awareness among ryots about marketing opportunities in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.