Amid complaints of delays in paddy procurement in the Cauvery delta region over the past few days, Food Minister R. Kamaraj said on Saturday that over 500 Direct Purchase Centres (DPCs) had been opened across Tamil Nadu to procure paddy during the kharif season.
In the delta region, the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) had opened 227 DPCs in Thanjavur district, 189 in Tiruvarur, 126 in Nagapattinam and 43 in Cuddalore. Procurement was in full swing after the revised rates, as per the Minimum Support Price announced by the Centre, was uploaded on the devices at the DPCs, he said.
Chief Minister’s fiat
“Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has instructed the Collectors to open more DPCs wherever necessary,” he told reporters after inspecting a few DPCs in Thanjavur district.
Dismissing the Opposition’s allegation that there was a delay in the opening of DPCs for the season, Mr. Kamaraj said orders for opening the DPCs were issued by the Collectors on September 30 and the procurement began on October 1 in Thanjavur district. Around 30,000 tonnes of paddy was procured the same day. Since October 2 was a holiday, there was no procurement, he said, adding the DPCs would function on Sunday.
When his attention was drawn to complaints from farmers that the paddy waiting for procurement at some DPCs had sprouted, Mr. Kamaraj denied that there was any delay in procurement. The pile-up was due to the heavy arrival of paddy simultaneously owing to mechanisation of harvest, unlike in the past when manual harvesting would result in staggered arrivals. Procurement had been stepped up to 1,000 bags a day at each DPC. Previously, only 600-800 bags were procured a day, he said.
On the farmers’ demand for procuring paddy with higher moisture content due to the unexpected rain, Mr. Kamaraj said it was the Centre’s norm that only paddy with moisture content of up to 17% could be procured. “However, we will ensure that farmers are not affected and none will be turned away,” he said.
Pointing out that last year, the TNCSC had procured a record 32.41 lakh tonnes of paddy, benefiting six lakh farmers, Mr. Kamaraj said that this year too, the government would procure the entire paddy arrivals from farmers who had raised the kuruvai crop even on a larger extent of area than normal owing to the timely release of water from the Mettur dam, desilting of canals and moderate rainfall.
Answering a question, he said stern action would be taken on specific complaints of irregularities. There was no question of paddy being brought from other districts for sale in delta districts as DPCs had been opened in all parts of the State.
Later in the day, Mr. Kamaraj inspected DPCs in Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts too.
