CM writes to Paswan to hike rice procurement to 31.11 lakh MT

CM writes to Paswan to hike rice procurement to 31.11 lakh MT

STAFF REPORTER n

RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in a letter to Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ramvilas Paswan, on Saturday said the state government can provide rice requirement of other states for the public distribution system (PDS).

In the letter, the CM said, 83.67 lakh metric tons of kharif crop of paddy was procured from 18.20 lakh farmers at the minimum support price in 2019-20 in Chhattisgarh.

Paddy procurement and custom milling of rice is done in the state as per a MoU signed between the state government and Union ministry of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs.

According to the MoU, there is a provision of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), procuring all the surplus rice.

A letter from the Union food and public distribution ministry in December 2019,   allowed procurement of 24 lakh tons of usna rice under the central pool of the FCI.

In Chhattisgarh, out of  the 56.51 lakh metric tons of paddy produced,  83.67 lakhs metric tons of kharif paddy is procured during the  2019-20 fiscal, out of which  25.40 lakh metric tons of rice was to be procured by the state for PDS requirement.

After contribution of 15.48 lakh metric tons of rice into the central pool and 9.92 lakh metric tons into state pool, 31.11 lakh metric tons of rice was surplus.

The Centre gave permission for procurement of only 24 lakh metric tons of rice by the FCI, which resulted in redressal of only 73.20 lakh metric tons of paddy out of the total paddy procured, leaving nearly 10.47 lakh metric tons of paddy (proportionate to 7.11 lakh metric tons of rice) unredressed.

The state government earlier also had requested through a letter in February 2020, for permission to procure 31 lakh tons of rice by the FCI.

At present, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chhattisgarh government is willing to contribute rice requirement of other states and is seeking permission to increase  the FCI’s procurement limit from 24 lakh tons to 31.11 lakh tons of kharif rice in produced in 2019-20 fiscal.