Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has directed officials of the Civil Supplies department to upload details of paddy procured from farmers the same day so that payment could be made to them at the earliest.
“Money is not a problem as the government has kept ₹5,000 crore ready for procurement operations so far and steps have been taken to ensure that paddy was sent to mills as soon as it was procured,” he said.
The Chief Secretary held a meeting with Civil Supplies department officials on Thursday to take stock of paddy procurement in the State.
He said that 4.3 lakh metric tonnes of paddy had been shifted to mills as of now and there was no backlog as such. Paddy procurement operations had not commenced in Warangal, Gadwal, Wanaparthy, Bhupalpally and Nagarkurnool districts as harvesting was yet to commence. Paddy procurement centres in these districts would be opened once harvesting starts, he said.
Officials informed the Chief Secretary that procurement was progressing smoothly and 4.61 lakh metric tonnes of paddy had been procured from 61,300 farmers through 3,679 centres. The present availability of gunny bags was sufficient to procure 31 lakh MT of paddy. While 7.8 crore gunny bags were readily available, tenders for procuring eight crore more bags were being finalised.
In addition, the State would receive 2.5 crore gunny bags from the Jute Corporation of India soon. In all, 51 check-posts had been established in 17 border districts of Telangana so that paddy was not brought by middlemen from other States to the paddy procurement centres set up here.
