Bhubaneswar, Jan 19 (PTI) The Odisha government on Tuesday urged the Centre for the early release of the pending subsidy for smooth conduct of paddy procurement process during the on-going Kharif marketing season in the state.
Odisha’s Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister, RP Swain in a letter to the Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister, Piyush Goel on Tuesday said that the paddy procurement process may be severely affected unless the Centre releases the subsidy amount in an early date.
The Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) undertakes the paddy procurement in the state, the minister said, adding that the state public sector undertaking has so far borrowed a staggering sum of Rs 15,000 crore to run the programme due to non-release of subsidy by the Union Department of Food and Public Distribution.
The minister said that an amount of Rs 6,039 crore subsidy is pending which pushed the OSCSC in trouble and caused difficulty in procuring the paddy from farmers.
‘Since all resources including the sanctioned limit of bank finances have been exhausted by OSCSC, the pending subsidy may be released urgently as further paddy procurement from farmers will be severely affected’, Swain said in the letter.
He also said that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has asked the state government to limit the delivery of surplus parboiled rice of Odisha to the extent of 50 per cent of the last year delivery and not to accept any surplus in the form of parboiled rice during the Rabi season of the current Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21.
‘Odisha is primarily a parboiled rice consuming state which is consumed in 24 out of 30 districts. As most of the rice mills in the state are parboiled mill, asking the state to deliver surplus rice in the form of raw rice in Rabi and to limit procurement of parboiled rice in the Kharif to the extent of 50 per cent of last year FCI delivery will have far-reaching adverse consequences for the state,’ Swain said.
He also requested the Union minister for his urgent intervention for an early solution to the issues to ensure smooth paddy procurement and delivery of rice in the state.
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