Hyderabad: Civil supplies minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy directed officials to expedite paddy procurement and told civil supplies commissioner and department officials to shift the paddy to intermediary godowns wherever millers were not cooperating. He said that 30 lakh metric tonnes of godown space had been arranged with the state warehousing corporation.
Whatever additional cost involved for storage in intermediary godowns and then giving it custom milling will be borne by the government, the minister said. The main point was that farmers should not be inconvenienced, he said at a Cabinet sub-committee meeting on paddy procurement on Friday at Secretariat.
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers Tummala Nageswara Rao, D. Sridhar Babu, and Ponnam Prabhakar, principal secretary D.S. Chauhan, senior officials, and representatives from the rice milling industry attended the meeting.
Uttam Kumar Reddy highlighted that Telangana was expected to achieve a record yield of nearly 150 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, making this year’s procurement process historic in terms of scale, operations, and volume.
The minister urged millers to cooperate fully in the procurement process, emphasising the government’s commitment to supporting the industry. To encourage this support, the government has set a low bank guarantee requirement of 10 per cent for custom milled rice (CMR) paddy, as against 100 per cent in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. He also asked the Milling Association to remind all the millers that both in terms of bank guarantees and penalty for defaulters, Telangana was more liberal than Andhra Pradesh.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said milling charges had been increased by `40 for fine paddy and by `30 for coarse paddy. Given the scale of this season’s procurement, he stressed the importance of millers' active cooperation with the state government.
He emphasised that the upcoming 10-15 days were critical and that farmers should not face distress. The government was prepared to incur additional expenses if required to ensure seamless procurement. He directed officials to promptly resolve any issues with millers to avoid delays in procurement, ensuring that farmers face no hardships and that their payments are processed without delay.
Uttam Kumar Reddy noted that, if necessary, the government might consider dispatching surplus paddy to neighbouring states, such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, if the procurement exceeded Telangana’s milling capacity. However, he clarified that any decision on this measure would be taken later and would ensure no cost burden on Telangana.
