The officials of State Civil Supplies Corporation have been told to stay in the filed for the next 15 days as the time is crucial in the paddy procurement exercise.
Minister for Civil Supplies Gangula Kamalakar held a video conference with District Collectors on the procurement exercise on Wednesday and told them to help the corporation officials get intermediary storage space for keeping the paddy procured in case of lack of space at rice mills and other storage spaces already filled with the paddy stocks.
He told the officials they could arrange (hire) storage space in the neighbouring areas of Telangana such as Jaggayyapeta in Andhra Pradesh and Raichur and Bidar in Karnataka in case it is not available in the surrounding areas of allotted mills within Telangana.
Complimenting the authorities for carrying out the procurement exercise at a good pace even in the adverse conditions dotted by regular untimely rains ever since the procurement was taken up in the first week of April, the Minister said
They were required to focus on the issues of transporting paddy from purchase centres to mills or storage facilities.
He told the officials to tackle the unloading issue at mills and prevent farmers by taking to streets due to delays as they would get payment for the produce disposed of after the quantity is unloaded at mills and the details are filled in the track sheets. In case there is no space at mills, it was the responsibility of officials to find intermediary godown space without the involvement of millers to unload the paddy purchased so that farmers get money in time.
The Minister also suggested officials to take care the problem of moisture, chaff and foreign material in the paddy did not arise as per the fair average quality specifications laid down by the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Some District Collectors brought to the Minister’s notice that they were facing problems as paddy procurement and custom milled rice collections were being carried out parallelly.
The District Collector explained that they were making use of godown space of primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS), agricultural market committee, rythu vedikas and other government buildings as intermediary storage space. So far, such space was arranged for 30,700 tonnes capacity in Medak district, 52,000 tonnes in Jagtial and 40,000 tonnes in Suryapet.
