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Paddy farmers, rice millers in TS in dire straits
The fate of paddy farmers and thousands of people whose livelihood revolves around rice milling industry face an uncertainty in the wake of Central Government’s recent directive to do away with the procurement of ‘levy rice’ from this season. Though the Centre trumpets that it would ensure payment of remunerative price to farmers at maximum support price or above, it appears that the move is actually meant to avoid subsidy burden which falls on it.
Hyderabad: The fate of paddy farmers and thousands of people whose livelihood revolves around rice milling industry face an uncertainty in the wake of Central Government’s recent directive to do away with the procurement of ‘levy rice’ from this season.
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Though the Centre trumpets that it would ensure payment of remunerative price to farmers at maximum support price or above, it appears that the move is actually meant to avoid subsidy burden which falls on it.
Hitherto the rice millers, under the levy rice procurement system introduced in 1978, used to purchase paddy directly from farmers at minimum support price (MSP) like the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other government agencies. As it was mandatory for the millers to supply some portion of their annual produce for public distribution system (PDS), the FCI used to purchase 75 per cent of the total rice procurement made by the millers.
In this backdrop, the Centre which told the States to cap levy rice purchase at 25 per cent during the 2014-15 season, has decided to dispense with the system from this Kharif Market Season (KMS) beginning from October 2015 and asked the state governments to buy rice on their own. With this, the Centre has shifted the onus of procuring of paddy and get it milled by the millers to ensure payments of MSP to farmers to States.
Though the Telangana government had already made arrangements to procure paddy through 1,600 IKP, 49 market yards and about 500 primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) centres at an MSP of Rs 1,450 a quintal from October 1 for its PDS needs, it’s yet to take a decision on custom milling charges.
It may be mentioned here that custom milling is a process of turning paddy into rice in the mill. With their role limiting only to custom milling, more than half of the 2,500 rice mills in the state have been either closed down or facing shutdown.
Demanding the Centre to restore the levy rice system besides increasing the custom milling charges to Rs 100 per quintal for boiled rice and Rs 75 per quintal for raw rice from Rs 25 and Rs 15 respectively, Telangana Rice Millers Association president Gampa Nagendra said: “The rice millers are under immense pressure since the Centre slapped a cap on levy rice procurement last year.”
The other demand of the millers is to change their electricity supply connection from 150 HP to LT category-III as most of the mills have to pay a minimum of Rs 80,000 a month under the minimum tariff demand for HT connections even though they were not operative.
All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) national vice-president Sarampalli Malla Reddy said: “If the Centre does not withdraw its decision, the crisis will deepen invariably affecting the paddy farmers.” By scrapping levy rice system, the Centre is trying to replace the PDS with cash transfer, he said, accusing the Central government of trying to evade the burden of subsidy on food grains.
By:Adepu Mahender
