Telangana govt. procures 37.59 LMTs paddy from 7171 PPCs

During rabi season in 2023, the then BRS government procured only 33.97 LMTs of paddy from 6889 procurement centres, according to officials.

But on April 1, 2024, one LMTs of paddy was procured, while 3.25 LMTs by April 15, 16.93 LMTs by April 30 and 32.93 LMTs by May 15 and 37.59 LMTs by May 20.

In its guidelines, the government said no paddy allotment shall be done to repeated defaulters while conditional allotment of paddy to be given to those millers who have completed 100 per cent default CMR dues and allotment of paddy to be made transparent and performance based duly considering the milling capacity.

The government said no lease permission shall be given for default mills and millers and the term ‘Defaulter’ in the modified government order was considered by the name of miller as well as applicable to the mill and no allotment shall be made to the default miller under any circumstances

No rice mill can be given or taken on lease without production of “No dues certificate” pertaining to the rice mill and the DM, CSC must ensure to check this document before entering into custom milling agreement for allotment of paddy to any rice mill.

Vicarious liability lies with the owner millers for lessee’s default and the lease deed must be a registered document and unregistered lease deed is not considered as valid document.

Referring to management of paddy affected by rain, the government said that sufficient tarpaulins were provided to each and every Paddy Purchase Centers. In urgency, Additional Collectors (CS) were authorized and directed to purchase and provide sufficient number of tarpaulins.

Increased number of paddy cleaners and weighing machines were used in addition to fans and blowers for quick drying of the paddy. Mechanized paddy cleaners were engaged for quick cleaning of paddy, with minimal requirement of manpower.

Technology was harnessed and Accuweather App was used for near accurate forecast of hourly weather. All officials were asked to install this Accuweather App, which give localized near accurate of rain forecast at that location. Such information was also sent from headquarter to districts on daily basis. PPCs in-charges and field officers were also trained to use the technology.

In this way, dry and sunny spells even on a rainy were used to dry paddy. As soon as moisture was manageable, using a dry spell, miller representative was called and paddy was weighed, bagged and stitched. Once a paddy is bagged on right moisture, then moisture variation was not a problem, as the same was allocated and transported to miller on priority against the boiled rice quota.

Anticipating this problem, a good Quota of 30 LMT boiled rice was obtained from the Central government well in advance, for the first time.