HYDERABAD: Amid criticism from various quarters over neglecting the farming sector, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed the Civil Supplies Corporation officials to see that payments to paddy farmers regarding procurement of their produce by the corporation is not delayed.
Rao, on Saturday, asked the Civil Supplies Corporation officials to raise Rs 1,000 crore loans from banks for paying the dues to farmers. The state government will stand guarantee for the loan amount, he added.
The Chief Minister instructed the officials to procure Paddy from farmers, whatever may be the expenditure, and make payments on time. He gave these instructions in view of the bumper crop and a large scale procurement. “There has been a record paddy production this year.
As a result, large quantities of paddy is reaching the Civil Supplies purchasing centres. The government is ready to spend any amount of money to purchase the paddy and asked the officials to arrange for the immediate payments to farmers,” the Chief Minister said.
The Chief Minister held a review meeting with Civil Supplies commissioner CV Anand and other officials at Pragathi Bhavan on Saturday on the issue of paddy procurement. The officials informed Rao that last year the procurement was 9 lakh tonnes while this year, by this time, 37 lakh tonnes of paddy has already been procured and another two lakh tonnes was expected to arrive at the purchasing centres.
The officials said that in 2013-14, the maximum procurement was 17 lakh tonnes which has now become 2.5 times more. So far, 37 lakh tonnes of paddy has been purchased for Rs 5,300 crore and of this, Rs 4,000 crore has been paid to the farmers. Rao asked the officials to pay the remaining Rs 1,000 crore immediately.
Rao said that the officials should arrange for the payment without waiting for the FCI to clear the dues. He wanted the Civil Supplies officials to take bank loan for clearing the dues, for which the state government would give guarantee. Timely payment of money to farmers would enable them to use it as input cost for the ensuing Kharif season, Rao said.