Against a demand for 350,000 gunny bags sought for paddy procurement, the Central government has agreed to provide only 143,000 and made available so far just 56,000, the Chhattisgarh government said on Thursday.
The gunny bags are needed for the paddy procurement from farmers in the kharif marketing year 2020-21. The Centre has cut down the supply of gunny bags to Chhattisgarh by 50 percent and conveyed through the Jute Commissioner that only 143,000 will be supplied.
To ensure that the paddy procurement doesn’t get affected due to the heavy cut, Chhattisgarh is procuring new bags of 70,000 HDPI, PP from the GEM portal.
According to an official release, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has given instructions to utilize gunny bags remaining from PDS for the paddy procurement. The Food Department has told all Collectors to collect the gunny bags remaining from PDS.
Procurement of about 95 lakh tonnes of paddy is estimated in the Kharif marketing year 2020-21. It is expected that 475,000 gunny bags are required for the procurement. Of this, the Centre was urged to give 350,000 bales of gunny bags.
On October 9, it was informed that the supply of gunny bags to Chhattisgarh has been slashed by 50 percent.
So far, only 56,000 bails of gunny bags have been received from the Central government, the release said.