TS says no to PPP model this season

PADDY PROCUREMENT

With a severe drought looming large on the State, the government does not want to experiment with a new system

Hyderabad: The Telangana State government will not go with the PPP (Private Public Partnership) model recommended by the Central government in its draft proposal for paddy procurement process. With drought situation looming large, the government will not be experimenting this year, according to official sources.

The State government which constituted a committee headed by the Principal Secretary (Registration and Stamps) Vinod Kumar Agarwal in July decided to continue with the existing system. The committee discussed in detail various options including the PPP model recommended by the Central government, the custom milling and continuing with the current practice of involving societies.

It came to the conclusion that given the drought situation in the coming months, the experimenting would not help. Moreover, the Central government is yet to finalise the draft. Rajath Kumar, Commissioner of Civil Supplies, “As per the PPP model, procurement of paddy, milling, storage and transportation to buffer godowns and mandal-level stock (MLS) points will be taken up by private parties selected on the basis of a comprehensive tender process.

Under this model, the States would be broken into clusters. Considering the logistics as the important aspect of supply chain management, specialised companies have to be engaged in order to use modern technologies. It was suggested that the companies had to be amongst the top 500 companies listed on SEBI. With the intention to bring competition among the market, the State government would have to go for bidding.

Rajath Kumar said as many as 14 lakh metric tonnes were procured during Rabi season and during the Kariff the officials were expecting to reach more or less same stock. However, the committee made certain observations to improve agreement with the millers. After considering various aspects, the committee had decided to go in for strengthening the terms and conditions with the millers so that the government would be able to procure quality rice.

Centre for Good Governance was assigned the task of formalising the ‘model contract agreement’ with the millers. “There will be meeting with the millers and will finalise the agreement with them on procurement shortly,” said Rajath Kumar, who is also one of the members of the committee.

By Md Nizamuddin