The responsibility of identifying areas where direct procurement centres (DPC) — other than the areas where Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation has its DPCs — are to be set up this season rests with the Agriculture Department.
Disclosing this at a training session on calculating moisture content in paddy held for DPC staff at the Thanjavur Zonal Office of Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation on Tuesday, Collector M. Govinda Rao said officials of the department should identify areas where setting up of DPCs were required based on their harvest projection data for the season.
Once the list of proposed areas for setting up of DPCs had been finalised by TNCSC, the Revenue Department would extend necessary support for opening the centres. For this purpose and also to ensure smooth and complaint free procurement, a tripartite committee comprising officials from Revenue and Agriculture Departments and TNCSC would be formed, the Collector said.
TNCSC would carry out procurement at its 88 permanent DPCs run, where infrastructure to dry the paddy, measure and stock was available.
The Corporation-run DPCs existed at 26 places in Orathanadu taluk, followed by 16 in Papanasam, 15 in Pattukottai, 10 each in Thanjavur and Thiruvaiyaru, six in Peravurani, three in Kumbakonam and two in Thiruvidaimaruthur taluk.
Generally, about 35 cents of land would be required for setting up a DPC with space for storing at least 100 metric tonnes of paddy. During the last samba/thaladi season, a total of 419 DPCs, including 82 permanent centres, functioned in Thanjavur district and around 5.80 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured, official sources said.
