Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday requested Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Pralhad Joshi to clear pending dues, increase paddy procurement target and enhance the boiled rice quota for Telangana.

The Chief Minister also suggested to the Union Minister to implement the fine rice (Sanna Biyyam) distribution scheme across the country.

Revanth Reddy made the request when he met the Union Minister, who arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday morning. During the meeting, the Chief Minister briefed the Union Minister about the successful implementation of the fine rice distribution scheme and its positive impact on the lives of the poorer sections in Telangana.

When the CM suggested that the Central government should also look into the issue of distributing fine rice across the country like Telangana, Joshi said that a decision would be taken after a thorough study.

Revanth Reddy requested Joshi to increase boiled rice quota to the state by an additional 10 lakh metric tonnes for the 2024-25 Rabi season. He also brought to the attention of the Union Minister on the pending dues of subsidy of Rs 1,468 crore for levy rice supplied under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and Rs 343.27 crore pending under the fifth phase of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). The CM urged Joshi to clear the pending dues immediately.

The Chief Minister also requested Joshi to extend the custom rice milling for the period of 2024-25, allocate additional boiled rice racks to overcome the storage problems in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns and to extend assistance to increase the storage capacity of godowns by 15 lakh metric tonnes in the state.

In view of the achievement of the highest paddy yield of 148 lakh metric tonnes in 2025-26 Kharif season, the Chief Minister appealed to the Union Minister to increase the paddy procurement target to 80 lakh metric tonnes.