Hyderabad, April 15: Civil Supplies and Irrigation Minister Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy assured farmers that every grain grown by them will be procured at Minimum Support Price (MSP).
He stressed that the Congress Government is committed to farmers’ welfare and will take all the required measures to make agriculture profitable.
Speaking to the media at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday, Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed the allegations leveled by opposition BRS leaders of a scam in the global tenders called by the Civil Supplies Corporation to dispose of enormous paddy stocks.
He said former minister Harish Rao, former BRS MLA Jeevan Reddy, and other BRS leaders were leveling baseless allegations, lacking subject knowledge of either paddy procurement or auction.
Giving a comparative presentation on paddy procurement this year (as of April 14) compared to the previous year, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that as against 7,031 Paddy Procurement Centers (PPCs) proposed last year, this year, their number has increased to 7,149 centers.
While only 335 PPCs were opened by April 14 last year, this year, as of March 25, a total of 6,919 centers have been opened. Whereas only 233 Metric Tonnes (MTs) of paddy were procured last year, as of April 14, a total of 269,699 MTs (2.70 LMTs) have been procured so far.
“As of the current date, paddy procurement is significantly higher than the previous year,” he said while sharing the district-wise breakdown of PCCs opened and the quantity of paddy purchased in Rabi 2023-24.
He said that PCCs had never been opened before April. However, this year, the Centre granted special permission to start them on March 25.
“With 50 LMTs, Telangana is the top state in the procurement estimate of rice against the Rabi crop during KMS 2023-24. The estimate is 25 LMTs for Andhra Pradesh, 10 LMTs for Odisha, 8 LMTs for Tamil Nadu, and 3.42 LMTs for Maharashtra,” he said.
The Minister said that the Congress Government has been taking up the paddy procurement process transparently and with utmost commitment and dedication. He noted that the District Collectors had been given clear direction to open more procurement centers wherever required.
He asked the farmers not to sell their produce below the MSP under any circumstances and assured stern action against those who forced farmers to sell their crops below the MSP.
