Chief Minister of the state K Chandrashekhar Rao today said that it was decided to procure Paddy during the summer season through 6, 408 Centres in the villages all over the State. The CM clarified that due to the re-surge of the Corona pandemic, it was decided, as was done last year, to procure Paddy in the villages.
The CM held a high-level review meeting here at Pragati Bhavan on Monday on Agriculture, Marketing, and Civil Supplies departments. In this meeting, Ministers S Niranjan Reddy, E Dayakar Rao, Ms. Satyavathi Rathod, Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy, Chief Secretary of the state government Somesh Kumar, CM Principal Secretary S Narsing Rao, Secretary Bhoopal Reddy, Principal Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao, Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Janardhan Reddy, Civil Supplies Commissioner Anil Kumar, FCI General Manager Ashwini Gupta, and others participated. The CM instructed Principal Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao to make all arrangements to give a Rs 20,000 Crore bank guarantee by Tuesday evening.
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The CM instructed CS Somesh Kumar to conduct an emergency videoconference with all the Collectors for the setting up of the procurement Centres. The CM asked Minister Niranjan Reddy to be in Hyderabad and monitor the setting up of the Procurement Centres and procurement of the Paddy. The CM also instructed the Agriculture Minister and the CS to take all precautions so that farmers were not put to any difficulty while the Paddy is procured. He said in 6,408 Procurement Centres, there are 2,131 IKP Centres, 3,964 PACS Centres and others are 313.
The CM instructed that Minimum Support Price conditions should be implemented and ensured while farmers bring their Paddy to the Centres. The CM wanted the farmers to ensure that the Paddy they are bringing in to the Centre should have not more than 17 percent moisture. The farmers should ensure that the moisture percentage is less and they should follow the conditions of the MSP. The CM instructed the officials to keep the 20 Crore Gunny Bags ready at the Procurement Centres.
CM KCR said that the Cotton produced in Telangana state had a better price in the international market. Since the Cotton produced in the State has more quality and has a higher price as well as higher yield, in the coming Monsoon season, the farmers should be ready to grow cotton in 75 to 80 Lakh acres.
In this regard, the CM asked Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Janardhan Reddy to make arrangements for the procurement of the seed. In a similar way, arrangements should also be made to cultivate Red Gram in 20 to 25 Lakh acres in the State. The CM said if Cotton and Red Gram crops were given water periodically, the yield would be more.
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The CM said in this summer season, Paddy is cultivated in 52.76 Lakh acres, and it is expected that the yield would be 1.17 Crore Metric Tonnes of the coarse variety Paddy and 21 Lakh Metric Tonnes of the fine variety Paddy. The CM instructed the CS to identify lands to be given on lease to the Central Ware Housing Corporation who is ready to construct additional Godowns to store the food grains.
Ensure water to tail end lands: CM
The CM has instructed the Water Resources Department Officials to ensure that water is supplied to the lands under the irrigation projects for another 10 days so that the crops would not dry. He said farmers from the Suryapet district are complaining that tail end lands are not getting water and hence the officials should ensure that water is supplied to the tail end lands and not even a single acre should be dried up due to lack of water.
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The CM instructed Engineer in Chief B Shankar over the phone to supply Kaleswaram water to tail-end lands in Suryapet district under the jurisdiction of Lower Maner Dam to DBM-71.
SOURCE-NSS
