Centre non-committal on paddy procurement
During previous rabi 2020-21, a record 61.87L tonnes of rice had been procured by TS against a target of 55 lakh tonne fixed by the Centre
Hyderabad: The Centre on Wednesday gave clarifications in Parliament on the issue of paddy procurement from Telangana after MPs from TRS and other parties raised the issue in the Lok Sabha.
TRS MPs Malothu Kavitha, Venkatesh Netha, Nama Nageswara Rao and Pasunoori Dayakar raised questions in Lok Sabha seeking clarity from the Centre on kharif and rabi procurements in Telangana.
Union minister of state for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi replied in the house that the target set for paddy (in terms of rice) procurement by the Centre for the central pool during Kharif 2021-22 is 521.89 lakh tonnes. However, the target for rabi crop would be decided before the onset of the season.
During previous rabi 2020-21, a record 61.87 lakh tonnes of rice had been procured by the Telangana government against a target of 55 lakh tonne fixed by the Centre in consultation with the state government, he said.
TRS MPs also sought clarity on the procurement target for the recent kharif crop. The minister said the kharif target was fixed for procurement of about 40 lakh tonnes of rice from Telangana. In the wake of chief minister Chandrashekhar Rao’s letter to Prime Minister Modi, the Centre would consider the increase or decrease of procurement estimates on the basis of the estimated production, marketable surplus and agricultural crop pattern.
TRS MPs urged the Centre to procure the entire stock of paddy from Telangana at least for the kharif since “raw rice is produced in kharif and there is no parboiled rice problem in kharif as is witnessed in rabi season.”