The Telangana government’s expectations of assistance from the Centre to bail out distressed chilli farmers stand dashed. The Centre not only announced a supporting purchase of a mere five per cent of the total produce in the State through the market intervention scheme (MIS), but also pegged the price at a rate lower than what the farmers were already getting for Fair Average Quality.
The net assistance expected out of the Centre’s decision was a maximum of ₹26.5 crore although the State government estimated procurement of material worth ₹502.59 crore under the MIS. As a special case, irrespective of MIS, the assistance would be over ₹1,800 crore, official sources said.
Marketing Minister T. Harish Rao said the Central offer was nothing but deception. The State government had sought an assistance for 30 lakh quintals of chilli that were yet to be disposed of and relaxation of the market intervention scheme norms. But the Centre offered to support only 3.2 lakh quintals. And that too at ₹5,000 a quintal plus ₹1,250 handling charges for FAQ stocks while the same quality was already purchased by traders at ₹5,000 to ₹6,000 a quintal.
The State government was also in a fix as there was no mention about medium and low variety chilli of second and third pickings respectively. The medium range was sold at ₹3,500 to ₹4,000 a quintal and lower one at ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 a quintal.
The government had proposed to the Centre to procure seven lakh quintals (17.5 lakh bags) of chilli which is 10 % of the total production at ₹7,000 a quintal which amounted to ₹490 crore. The labour charges, cost of gunny bags and transportation worked out to ₹12.59 crore and the entire package was posed for ₹502.59 crore.
Shocking blow
The Centre, however, dealt a shocking blow fixing the permissible limit at ₹212 crore, of which the loss on account of damage to purchased chilli due to non-availability of cold storage was pegged at ₹106 crore. Only 50 % of ₹106 crore was eligible for compensation which should be borne by the Central and State governments in the ratio of 50:50. The Central share thus worked out to ₹26.5 crore, the Minister said.
The government estimated a working capital requirement of ₹1,800 crore for the balance 27 lakh quintals, but there was no Central support.
