HYDERABAD : After months of uncertainty over the issue of paddy procurement due to the back and forth allegations levelled by TRS and BJP against each other, the farmers were left wondering what would come out of the political slugfest.
What started as Centre refusing to accept parboiled rice provoked the State government to declare an all-out war against the Centre on paddy procurement issue. Protests were held by both parties to gain the support of farmers. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao finally announced that the State government would procure paddy from the farmers.
Now, the State government has written a letter to the Centre on April 13, agreeing to deliver raw rice as desired by the Centre this Rabi season. The commissioner for civil supplies department has estimated that 40.20 lakh tonne raw rice will be procured this season till June in 32 districts. The government proposed milling up to March 2023 and sought three lakh bales of packaging material from the Centre.
The government has informed the Centre that 6,968 paddy procurement centres were going to be opened this Rabi marketing season. It also informed that 765 raw rice mills with a monthly capacity of 1,77,901 tonne and 867 parboiled rice mills with a capacity of 5,67,255 tonne were engaged in milling for the previous Rabi season 2020-21. It was also mentioned in the letter that the State government was ready to deliver ‘Fortified Boiled Rice’ to the FCI.