Bhubaneswar: Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment and Power, Kanak Vardhan Singhdeo, chaired an inter-ministerial review meeting at the Lok Seva Bhawan on Sunday to discuss the paddy procurement for the Kharif season this year.
The meeting noted that preparations for paddy procurement have reached the final stage.
Singhdeo emphasised expediting the process of paddy procurement as the dates are approaching and to ensure that all kinds of irregularities, brokering, katni chhatni are stopped. He also laid stress on providing fair price to the farmers for their crops.
The paddy procurement will start from Bargarh and Sambalpur from November 20 and 22, respectively.
For the first time, Rs 800 per quintal additional input assistance with the minimum support price for paddy has been provided this year. Its disbursement will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi from Sohela in Bargarh district on December 8. All the farmers who would have sold their paddy in the mandis till December 7 will receive Rs 800 per quintal at one go.
Automatic grain analyser will be used for grain quality testing. These automatic grain analyser machines have already been provided for installation in 200 large PPCs with a paddy collection capacity of more than 4,000 metric tons. Moisture testing machines have also been arranged.
Deputy CM Singhdeo advised the millers to be present at the mandis to stop the katni chhatni. Each district will have a control room for the convenience of farmers. The entire process will be done transparently and a nodal officer will supervise the activities at the mandis.
Minister of Food Supply & Consumer Affairs Krushna Chandra Patro, Minister of Cooperation Pradip Bal Samant, Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh, and Commissioner-cum-Secretary Rajesh Pravakar Patil were present in the high-level meeting.
