Chief Minister Raman Singh has directed the cooperative societies of the State to construct platforms or terraces at the paddy procurement centres to protect paddy from damage.
He has also asked the Federation of Cooperative Marketing Societies (Markfed) to act on the direction at the earliest so that paddy worth crores of rupees can be kept safe before lifting. The Chief Minister held a meeting of the senior officials at the Ministry till late night and issued the necessary instructions to different concerned departments.
Those attended the meeting include Deputy Chairman of State Planning Board and former chief secretary Shivraj Singh, chief secretary Sunil Kumar, director general of police Ramniwas and principal secretaries of different departments. It was said in the meeting that every year Markfed has been provided with about Rs 150 crore towards mandi tax and Markfed could spend fifty per cent of it on the construction of the platforms at the paddy procurement centres.
The Government said this year the number of paddy procurement centres has been increased to 1,971 which are operating under 1,333 primary cooperative societies. The Government is buying the paddy through such centres by offering minimum support price to the farmers. The centres which do not have such platforms have been told to give priority to build them.
The direction of the Chief Minister comes after reports that many cooperative societies have stopped buying paddy across Mahasamund district due to lack of proper space for storage. The civil supply officials had earlier told the societies to keep the paddy in stacks (arranged in layers).