Telangana government got a pat for its paddy procurement system in the State.
Union Secretary, Public Distribution System, Ravikant complimented the State for arranging a procurement centre for every five km to facilitate the farmers getting minimum support price without any strain.
Mr. Ravikant who was on a visit to the State to inspect the system of paddy procurement and implementation of PDS met with Food Corporation of India and Civil Supplies officials here on Saturday.
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He directly interacted with farmers who were selling their produce at the procurement centres at Khammam, Kothagudem, Siddipet, Mancherial, Bhupalpally districts through a video call from Hyderabad. He also spoke to the beneficiaries of PDA scheme who were drawing their quota from the ration shops under Iris system.
He expressed his satisfaction over the feedback he got for his queries from the farmers. He sought to know why the yield this year was more than that of last year, whether they were getting the MSP, how long did it take for them to get the money into their bank accounts after selling the produce, whether the procurement centres were within their reach, among others.
He said the State government’s policies deserved appreciation in providing MSP to the farmers, in depositing money directly into the accounts of farmers without the role of middlemen, use of Iris, biometrics and ration portability. It really stood as a model to the country, he said.
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Paddy purchase
The Central official also inquired from the officials the reasons for purchasing 208 % more paddy so far this year. Commissioner Civil Supplies Akun Sabharwal said several reasons like timely rains, uninterrupted power supply, Rythu Bandhu scheme and various other new projects launched by the State government had helped increase the yield. The year’s purchases reached 39 lakh tonnes so far as against 16 lakh tonnes last year, he added.
He requested early release of various dues pending with FCI and other departments related to market cess. He said that the portability system was a huge success in the State and in the last 10 months, 1.13 lakh transactions took place under it.
The government started Iris system when it was found that the old people and women were facing difficulties in getting ration commodities using biometric system. The iris system was now available in 5,186 ration shops spread over 16 districts, Mr. Sabharwal said.