Bhongir: Irrigationminister N Uttam Kumar Reddy attended the review meeting on Kharif paddy procurement here on Saturday during which he expressed pride on Telangana achieving a record in paddy production.

The Minister added that the procurement process began on October 1 and will be completed by the second week of January. In Yadadri-Bhongir district alone, paddy was cultivated in 2.83 lakh acres, yielding 7.79 lakh metric tonnes. A special review meeting on state-level procurement will be held on October 16 in Hyderabad. He announced that during this Kharif season, Telangana produced 148.03 lakh metric tonnes of paddy cultivated in 66.8 lakh acres. Outof this, the government plans to procure 80 lakh metric tones of them 40 lakh MT of fine varieties and 40 lakh MT of coarse varieties at a cost of about Rs 22,000 to Rs 23,000crore.