HYDERABAD: Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal did not give any concrete assurance to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on procuring boiled rice from the State, when the two of them met on Monday. Instead, the Centre sought three to four more days’ time to take a decision on the same. But, the message from the Union Minister was that all godowns in the country were full and the present stock of foodgrains was sufficient for the next four years.
The Chief Minister met Piyush Goyal for the second consecutive day in Delhi on Monday to discuss the issue of procurement of paddy. Rao wanted Goyal to tell the Telangana farmers how much paddy the Food Corporation of India (FCI) would procure. Rao discussed the issue in detail with Goyal. Speaking to reporters later, State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar said during Sunday’s meeting, officials of the Union Civil Supplies Department had sought some more information regarding paddy procurement from the State. “We have provided the additional information today,” Vinod Kumar said.
The Chief Minister had appealed to the Union Minister to explore the possibility of exporting paddy to other countries, Vinod Kumar said. The States cannot export directly to other countries, as exports are controlled by the Central government. The Union Minister instead suggested raising alternative crops in the country. But Vinod Kumar pointed out even farmers in Punjab, the largest producer of wheat, were also raising paddy as a single crop.
The vice-chairman said that after the formation of Telangana, the State government had mainly focused on the development of agriculture. With the construction of irrigation projects, the agriculture production had improved manifolds in the State, he said. Even during the pandemic, the State government had purchased the entire paddy. However, the FCI expressed its inability to procure the same from the State, Vinod Kumar said.
TELL RYOTS HOW MUCH PADDY CAN FCI BUY: CM
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, meeting Piyush Goyal for the second consecutive day in Delhi, wanted Goyal to tell the Telangana farmers how much paddy the FCI would procure from Telangana.