The State government has paid ₹1,854 crore to farmers for paddy procurement during the 2022-23 season, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies G.R. Anil, has said.
The payment of the remaining ₹216 crore was progressing and would soon be in the bank accounts of the farmers, he added.
The Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) had procured 7,31,184 tonnes of paddy from 2,50,373 farmers. Of this, 2.30 lakh farmers received full payment. This included all farmers who were owed ₹50,000 or less, he said.
Mr. Anil blamed the consortium of banks for the delay in completing the payments before Onam. The State government had entered into an agreement with the consortium of SBI, Canara Bank, and Federal Bank, for the purpose due to the delay in receiving the share of the Central government.
Initially, an agreement was inked for disbursing ₹700 crore and later, for ₹280 crore. However, the money was not paid in full into the farmers’ accounts before Onam.
The Central government was yet to release ₹637.6 crore, which was its share for the procurement of paddy for the period from 2018-19 to 2022, Mr. Anil said. The State government had brought the matter to the notice of the Centre on multiple occasions, but the money was yet to be released.
The State would bring it to the notice of the Secretary, Union Food Ministry, who would be in Kerala on September 6, he added.
Discussions with the Kerala Bank was progressing to ensure that the farmers were paid on time for the paddy procurement in the upcoming season starting in October. In some places, the ‘Paadasekhara samithis’ had delayed in submitting their reports on the paddy collected from the farmers. Steps were being taken to avoid such problems in the next season, he said.
