CHENNAI: The department of cooperation, food and civil supplies has deployed special monitoring teams to oversee the paddy procurement across the State. Civil supplies commissioner V Rajaraman has been deployed as the special monitoring officer for Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai. TNCSC managing director S Prabhakar has been deployed for Ariyalur, Tiruchy, Dindigul, Erode and Tiruppur districts, as per a recent government order.
Tamil Nadu Warehousing Corporation MD A Sivagnanam, TNCSC joint managing director K Karpagam, joint registrar of cooperative societies (consumer affairs) A Shankar and a few others have been deployed for other districts.
Due to surplus cultivation, paddy procurement was advanced by a month and began on September 1 for the Kharif Marketing Season 2022-23 under the Decentralised Procurement System. But the process has been plagued by issues such as inadequate space at direct procurement centre (DPC), shortage of staff, assessment of moisture levels of paddy, and verification of farmers’ documents online.
While TNCSC procures paddy in the delta region, the National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) opened DPCs in non-delta regions. In places where NCCF did not open DPCs in non-delta districts, TNCSC, cooperative marketing societies, and cooperative credit societies were permitted to procure paddy.
4,500 vacancies in PDS shops to be filled soon
Chennai: Minister of Cooperation I Periyasamy said about 4,500 vacancies of salespersons and assistants in ration shops will be filled by January. During a review meeting, Periyasamy said the agriculture loans given to farmers have exceeded `10,000 crore for 2021-22. “A whopping 5,33,357 people have been given loans of `4,052.24 crore from April 1 to September 28,” said the minister. He added that for the benefit of migrant workers, traders of pushcarts and others, LPG cylinders weighing 2 kg and 5 kg will be sold through select ration shops. He added 1.25 lakh farmers have been given interest-free loans from cooperative banks for farming of goats, cattle, poultry and fish
