Telangana Government has requested the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure custom milled rice (CMR), raw rice, this rabi season without troubling farmers with “unreasonable objections” keeping in mind the specific weather conditions that would prevail in the State during the season.
In a meeting with General Manager of FCI Deepak Sharma here on Saturday, Minister for Civil Supplies Gangula Kamalakar sought increase in the allotment of gunny bags, godowns and railway rakes and lift at least 9 lakh tonnes of rice every month. He stated that officials of the State Civil Supplies Corporation and FCI would be nodal officers for supervising the procurement exercise.
Sating that 34 paddy procurement centres were opened on the first two days on April 14 and 15 the Minister said steps were also taken to prevent flow of paddy from the neighbouring States, particularly Andhra Pradesh where paddy is cultivated in about 16.68 lakh acres against 35.84 lakh acres this rabi season.
He appealed to the FCI to procure CMR without raising unnecessary queries as the percentage of broken rice would be comparably high this season with processing of paddy grown in high temperatures as raw rice. The Minister explained that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had decided to procure paddy by bearing additional expenditure incurred due to its processing as raw rice instead of parboiled rice, which had been a practice all these years.
The State Government had given the details of CMR (raw rice) to be supplied by Telangana this season by following the quality specifications, the Minister said and pointed out that the percentage of broken rice would be high in paddy grown in the combined Karimnagar and Warangal districts. He urged the FCI not to trouble farmers keeping in mind the special circumstances.
Plea for review
Further, the Minister requested FCI to take 5.25 lakh tonnes of CMR dues pertaining to the last Rabi season as fortified parboiled rice and arrange additional storage capacity and railway rakes for storing the paddy procured and transporting CMR this season. He also wanted the FCI to review the uniform deadline fixed for supply of CMR to all States irrespective of their extents of paddy cultivation as also the additional time given for the purpose.
He suggested that higher paddy growing States need longer time to supply the CMR and such States be given more additional time, compared to the States growing paddy in lesser extent. The Minister said about 15 lakh tonnes of gunny sacks were required for procurement of 60 lakh tonnes of paddy and the State Government would write to Jute Corporation of India for supply of the required bags and also procured from open auction and through Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal.
