Govt buys 13.13 LMTs paddy this Kharif

Hyderabad: The State government has purchased a total of 13.13 LMTs of paddy worth Rs 3,045.76 crore this Kharif season. Through 7,532 operational paddy procurement centres across Telangana, over 3 LMTs of superfine rice (sannarakam) paddy was received from farmers for which Rs 9.21 crore of bonus was paid till now.

With the State government’s flagship programme which aims to supply superfine paddy through PDS, it has encouraged farmers to cultivate the variety by offering Rs 500 as bonus per quintal. “Within a week, the farmers will be receiving almost 90 per cent of the bonus which would touch Rs 20 to 25 crore. With this, a total of 2.81 lakh would get benefitted. When the Sannabiyyam is supplied through PDS the real purpose of the distribution system will be served and the recycling of rice will be curtailed,” said D S Chauhan, the Civil Supplies Commissioner during a press conference on Monday.

The official informed that the new policy being adopted vis-à-vis milling was proving to be fruitful, as a total of 1,669 mills gave undertaking for bank guarantee and security deposit from over 2,000 mills which participated in Kharif 2024-25. As per the Government Order 27 issued on October 29, the defaulters of Custom Milling Rice (CMR) were not provided any paddy allotment. Those with no previous history of default and previous defaulter having cleared complete dues along with penalty were approved for milling with bank guarantee and security deposit calculated on MSP.

Further the State government has taken the decision to store paddy in ‘Intermediary godowns’ so that paddy can be allotted only to performing millers. The Commissioner further informed that up to December 2023, the outstanding loans of TGSCSCL (Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited) was Rs 58,623 crore and the loan was reduced by Rs 11,608.4 crore within eleven months. “The financial health of the Civil Supplies Corporation has improved significantly through effective measures which resulted in reduced debt burden. Now it stands at 47,014 crore.