Fine rice distribution to start in Jan, says D.S. Chauhan
Hyderabad: The fine rice distribution that is going to start from January would benefit 2.81 crore beneficiaries and the guidelines for the program have been issued by the government, said commissioner of civil supplies department D.S. Chauhan. Addressing the media at the Civil Supplies Bhavan on Monday, he informed that the government has so far spent `3,045.76 crore on the purchase of 13.13 lakh metric tonnes of paddy.
“A bonus of `9.21 crore has also been paid and some payments are delayed due to technical problems. By November 23, bonus payment for fine variety paddy would be made for 90 percent of the farmers. Of this 10.11 LMT are coarse varieties, while the rest 3.02 LMT are fine varieties,” he noted.
Chauhan said that they have introduced reforms to plug the loopholes in the paddy purchase mechanism as the earlier policy was causing a dent in the government finances. The reforms were initiated as per the recommendations given by the cabinet sub-committee led by civil supplies minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy.
“The government has opened 8,066 paddy procurement centers like never before as the production of paddy reached the highest level. Bank guarantees are being sought to remove loopholes in the purchase of paddy. The earlier policies had increased the corporation debt to `58,623 crore, which has been reduced by `11,608.40 crore to `47,014.68 crore. The guarantees will be returned once the milled rice is returned and will not be linked to any other parameter,” he said.
No dues certificates are being asked to ward off cheating in the name of lease agreements. There won’t be any scope for favoritism and allocations will be made based on the track record of Miller. No paddy would be given to defaulters, he added.