Procurement paddy in Telangana during the current rabi (yasangi) season is going on unhindered despite the lockdown and untimely rains and about 52.41 lakh tonnes of the produce worth ₹9,886 crore has been purchased from 7.45 lakh farmers so far.
Chairman of the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation (TSCSC) M. Srinivas Reddy stated here on Saturday that of the paddy purchased from farmers, 48.86 lakh tonnes had already been moved to rice mills. Against the estimated production of about 1.3 crore tonnes of paddy this season, the corporation was ready to procure 80 lakh tonnes keeping aside the remaining produce for local consumption and seed needs.
“In spite of the coronavirus pandemic, lockdown and untimely rains the Civil Supplies Corporation has overcome odds to procure a record quantity of 40.62 lakh tonnes of paddy during the last 21 days and it is a sort of a record in itself. Since the imposition of lockdown on May 12, the paddy purchased has been 21.22 lakh tonnes in 10 days and no where in the country paddy has been procured at such a pace,” Mr. Srinivas Reddy said.
Stating that they have been monitoring the procurement exercise on daily basis with the help of online procurement management system (OPMS), the corporation Chairman said such a huge procurement had become possible with the cooperation of the Civil Supplies Minister, Commissioner, other officials, district collectors and additional collectors, procurement staff, transportation and other officials.
The Corporation had so far opened 6,892 paddy procurement centres so far and 308 of them had already been closed in seven district following completion of the procurement exercise there. He explained that a highest quantity of 6.92 lakh tonnes was purchased in Nizamabad district so far.
Other districts where the major chunk of procurement had taken place include Nalgonda (5.92 lakh tonnes), Suryapet (4.5 lakh tonnes), Jagtial and Karimnagar (3.33 lakh tonnes each), Kamareddy (3.24 lakh tonnes), Peddapally (2.51 lakh tonnes), Khammam (2.48 lakh tonnes) and Yadadri-Bhongir and Siddipet (2.35 lakh tonnes each).
Mr. Srinivas Reddy stated that they were able to overcome the problem of transportation of paddy purchased by making use of every available transport vehicle with the cooperation of Transport department and district officials but unloading was taking time due to shortage of labourers. He also admitted to some delays in payments to farmers.
