BJP intervenes, Sanjay says rice procurement in state will start again

HYDERABAD: Telangana state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Friday said the Centre responded positively to a request from him to extend by one month purchase of custom-milled rice (CMR) from the state. It may be recalled that rice millers in Telangana state have been complaining for some time that the Food Corporation of India had stopped rice purchases from the state resulting in huge stocks at rice mills, which in turn stopped further milling operations as there is no place to store incoming paddy stocks.

Sanjay said he met with Union minister for food and public distribution Piyuh Goyal on Friday at Parliament in New Delhi and requested for the extension following a plea from the Rice Millers Association of Telangana state seeking resumption of CMR deliveries to the Central pool. He said the off-take problems with the FCI followed the refusal of the Telangana state government to distribute 5 kg free rice to every individual below the poverty line for which the Centre was making the payments. This led to the FCI stopping its procurement, Sanjay said, adding that after he was briefed about the situation, Goyal instructed his department officials and sort out the issue.

Sanjay said the problems faced by rice millers in Telangana state was one deliberately created by the K. Chandrashekar Rao government who stopped free rice distribution to the poor because the programme was resulting in Prime Minister Narendra Modi getting credit for helping the poor in the state.

He added that the FCI has already extended its procurement from the state six times but was considering one more extension, following his representation to Goyal.