Govt will lift soaked paddy to mills: Spl officer

VIJAYAWADA: Commercial Tax chief commissioner and NTR district special officer M. Girija Sankar directed officials to lift rain-soaked paddy to the rice mills without any delay and provide gunny bags and transport facilities to farmers. He warned of stern actions against the officials who show negligence in discharging their duties.

NTR district special officer Girija Sankar, joint collector Dr Sampath Kumar, and district supply officer (DSO) Komali Padma inspected the rain-soaked paddy grain that was being dried by farmers on the NHAI bypass road at Pathapadu and Kundavari Kandrika villages near Vijayawada on Sunday. Girija Sankar checked the moisture content of the paddy and checked the weight of the paddy bags which were ready to be lifted to the mills.

He interacted with farmers and enquired about problems they faced during drying and lifting their rain-soaked paddy, maize and jowar to mills. Farmers appealed to Girija Sankar to lift the paddy as early as possible in the wake of heavy rain warnings issued by the Indian Meteorological Department.

Girija Sankar said that there was no shortage of gunny bags and as of now around 6 lakh bags were ready at the civil supplies department. He further said that the officials will provide transport facilities whenever farmers ask to lift their grains to mills and allow farmers if they were interested to sell their products to private traders.

He directed the revenue and agricultural officials to coordinate with each other and help the farmers to lift rain-soaked paddy. Also, he enquired about standing paddy crops in the district and gave suggestions to the farmers not to harvest crops in view of rain warnings.