No shortage of gunny bags for paddy procurement: Gangula

Karimnagar: Nearly 2,384 paddy purchasing centres have been set up across the State and purchasing of paddy has started in 873 centres, informed Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar.

So far 1. 86 lakh metric tonnes of grain has been procured. It was planned to set up 6,920 centres across the State and the district administrations directed to set up purchasing centers wherever necessary. No complaint was received from any farmer on the purchases so far, he said.

On Friday, the Minister inaugurated paddy procurement centres in Kamanpur and Hajipur villages of Kothapalli mandal in the district. Speaking on the occasion, he said that the Central Government failed to deliver its duty but the CM KCR stood by the farmers by deciding to procure paddy.

After the creation of Telangana, the State government invested huge funds in the development of agriculture and to support the farmers by providing Ryhthu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, 24 hours free electricity for agriculture and irrigation.

The paddy procurement process would continue without any hassle. In Karimnagar district, 180 purchasing centres were already opened and a total of 357 purchasing centres would be set up in the district.

Kamalakar denied the allegations of shortage for gunny bags and said steps were taken to procure enough gunny bags. Around 15 crore gunny bags were required in this yasangi season and 1.60 crore bags were available when the procurement started.

The gunny bags were collected in a short time beyond expectations. As three crore gunny bags were required by the end of this month, 6. 85 crore bags have been collected and kept ready, out of which 57 lakh new ones were available and another 8 crore new gunny bags were required.

The Minister said that the required gunny bags have been sent to all the districts and told the opposition party leaders to check themselves if necessary and it was not appropriate to propagate lies.

PACS Chairman Pendyala Shyamsunder Reddy, MPP Srilatha, ZPTC Paddala Karuna, PACS Vice Chairman Anjaneyulu, Additional Collector Shyamprasad Lal, District Civil Supplies Officer Suresh, District Coordinating Officer Shri Mala, District Manager, Civil Supplies Srikanth Reddy and others were present.