Over 50 lakh tonne paddy piled up in mills as FCI stop purchase

HYDERABAD: Finance minister T. Harish Rao and civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar on Friday held a meeting with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other senior officials of civil supplies department at BRKR Bhavan to discuss what to do with mounting rice stocks in rice mills across the state in the wake of Centre stopping rice procurement from the state from June 7.

They directed the officials to prepare a comprehensive note on paddy procurement and be prepared with all relevant information for the Chief Minister’s meeting which is likely to be convened shortly.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) stopped rice procurement on the grounds that there was a mismatch between procured paddy stocks handed over to rice mills and the quantity of rice bags present in rice mills. The FCI also cited state government's failure to implement the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana scheme since April this year.

With this, rice stocks have mounted in all rice mills since June 7 leaving no space for storing fresh paddy stocks. All rice mills downed shutters and migrant labourers from other states working in rice mills left for their native places.

Nearly 50.12 lakh tonnes of recent rabi paddy stocks have piled up in rice mills for milling in addition to lakhs of tonnes of rice stocks of previous kharif and rabi seasons. The government secured nearly Rs 30,000 crore loans from banks to pay MSP for farmers for paddy procurement. These stocks are getting damaged in rice mills due to delay in transporting them to FCI godowns.