Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Thursday announced that 293 ginning and spinning mills will start functioning across the state after Diwali.
The Minister made this announcement during a review meeting with CCI, NAFED, FCI and state Marketing officers here. He directed the CCI DGM, Amarnath Reddy, to take stern action against officials, who were negligent during procurement of cotton, which he said should benefit farmers. Brokers or private traders should be barred from the process, he said.
Reddy said that CCI is educating farmers on the need to ensure that the moisture content in the cotton brought to the market is low. "We are using Aadhaar-based cash transfers in cotton procurement and this will be a transparent process," he said.
Kishan Reddy instructed the authorities to make available moisture measuring machine at every collection centre and assured farmers that there would be no delay in procurement. Despite lower cotton yields this year, Kishan Reddy assured the farmers that the authorities would buy cotton at a minimum supportive price with due diligence. He urged farmers not to hastily sell cotton to private traders at low prices.
The Union Minister reviewed with officials of Food Corporation of India (FCI) regarding paddy crop. He recalled that a large number of farmers in Telangana had cultivated paddy variety as per the instructions of the state government, which had also promised to collect the entire produce.
Stating that there is no situation to buy the grains at present, he urged the state government to take responsibility for it and render justice to farmers. He said there was uniform national price structure and there would be no special rules for different states. He also said that there would be no discrepancy in the procurement of grains for the implementation of the Food Security Act and that the FCI would insist on quality and at a minimum support price. Asking the state government to amass the paddy harvested by the farmers, he urged the Chief Minister to honour his promise of paying bonuses.
Reddy mentioned that the Union Government has been providing funds to many schemes of the State Government through National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), which has been assisting in purchase of sheep, pisciculture and granting low-interest loans to cooperatives. He assured to discuss with the Union agriculture minister for more funds to schemes.
The Minister has said that the new agricultural laws will increase demand for agricultural products over the next two years. He said that the Centre has already taken steps to promote exports. He said the food processing industry would benefit from the product-based incentive scheme announced recently.
The Minister asserted that the Union Government is taking steps to streamline the country's economy post the Covid-19 crisis and has announced several measures to benefit the people, generating employment to urban and rural youth.
Later, Kishan Reddy attended the 'National Ayurveda Day celebrations' on the occasion of 'Dhanwantri Jayanti', organised by Vishwa Ayurveda Parishad and Aarogya Bharati of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at Chinna Jeeyar Swamy’s ashram in Munchital.
