50 paddy procurement centres soon in Nalgonda

Nalgonda: As many as 50 paddy procurement centres would be setup in the district to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) to the farmers, informed District Collector Gaurav Uppal.A meeting was conducted by the Civil Supplies department in the meeting hall of the district Collectorate here on Tuesday to discuss an action plan to procure paddy for Kharif season. Owners of rice millers, officials of cooperative, marketing and civil supplies departments and IKP centers attended the meeting.

Attending the meeting as the chief guest, Gaurav Uppal cautioned that zero tolerance would be maintained against the rice millers and paddy purchasing centres that would pay price lesser than MSP to paddy. He instructed the Joint Collector to issue a circular clearly mentioning the responsibilities of the different departments on paddy procurement.

The officials of revenue, marketing and agriculture departments should be vigilant and keep an eye on the millers to check the prices.
The Collector told the officials to take measures to inaugurate the paddy purchasing centres by the elected representatives of the area. Underlining the need to pay wages to hamalis as per the rate fixed by the government, he advised the officials to make an agreement with hamalies to avoid problems in future.

District Manager of Civil Supplies was told to make gunny bags available for paddy purchase at the procurement centres. Joint Collector Narayana Reddy, DRDO Project Director R Anjaiah, and officials of civil supplies department attended the meeting.