HYDERABAD: Dispelling allegations levelled by the Opposition BRS and BJP regarding paddy procurement in the state through a detailed presentation, Civil Supplies and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday said that the process was never organised with integrity, sincerity, and honesty after the formation of Telangana.
Reassuring farmers that every grain of paddy will be procured at Minimum Support Price (MSP), the minister issued a stern warning to the private players involved in paddy procurement.
Addressing a press conference at the Gandhi Bhavan along with TPCC media committee chairman Sama Rammohan Reddy, Uttam dismissed the allegations of a scam in the global tenders called by the Civil Supplies Corporation to dispose of enormous paddy stocks. He said former minister T Harish Rao, former BRS MLA Jeevan Reddy and other BRS leaders were levelling baseless allegations that lacked subject knowledge of either paddy procurement or auction.
Giving a comparative statement on paddy procurement under the current dispensation and previous BRS regime, Uttam said that the government has already set up 6,619 of the total proposed 7,149 paddy procurement centres against the 335 out of 7031 paddy procurement centres in the BRS regime. He also said that the state government has already procured 2,69,699 metric tonnes (MTs) this year against 233 MT paddy procured last year by the BRS government.
“The paddy procurement centres were never opened in the month of April. However, this year, special permission was obtained from the Centre to start the PCCs on March 25, and the required mechanism for paddy procurement has been made available on time,” the minister said.
Rejecting the allegations with regard to paddy auction, Uttam said that the MSP operations were for the benefit of farmers and not to earn profits for the government. “MSP is meant to protect the farmers from distress sale. Certain operations entail losses which the government bears. Take maize procurement in Rabi 2019-20 for instance. The government spent Rs 1,666 crore to procure maize and sold it at just Rs 960 crore,” he said.
Centre okays procurement of 30 lakh MT of parboiled rice from state for 2023-24
The Centre has approved the procurement of 30 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of parboiled rice from Telangana for the Kharif and Rabi seasons, 2023-24. On Monday, Union Food and Public Distribution department under secretary Deependra Singh wrote to the state Commissioner of Food and Civil Supplies.