Collector Umesh Agrawal carried out surprise inspections in different paddy procurement and storage centres of the district. He directed the Food Officer to speed up lifting of paddy from the centres. The Collector also asked the Food Officer to chalk out a working plan for quickly shifting of paddy from procurement centres to storage godowns.
He suggested to take meeting of transporters in this connection and also asked the official to keep an eye on middlemen active for purchasing paddy. The Collector visited Bemcha and Tumgao paddy procurement centers and gathered detailed information about the process for purchasing paddy from farmers.
He also discussed with farmers coming in these centres for selling paddy and also about paddy procurement arrangements made at the centres. Agrawal inquired about token pre-booking system and also checked the token register. He directed that token should not be issued the same day. later on, he reached Tumadabri Paddy Storage Centre and saw various arrangements made for keep paddy.
The Collector ordered to carry out random weighing of paddy stock coming for storage. Notably, for physical verification of paddy procured, 15 teams have been constituted in the district. Notably till January 12 this year, the State government had informed that about 40.8 lakh metric tonnes of paddy had been procured so far in the State.
The State Primary Co-operative Agricultural Societies has procured paddy in its 1976 procurement centres from December 1, 2014. The paddy procurement drive will conclude at the end of this month, officials stated.
On January 5 this year, the government had reported that nearly 32.46 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured at procurement centres of cooperative societies under support price policy in the Kharif Marketing Year 2014-15.
This year, support price for thick paddy (common) has been fixed at Rs 1360 and paddy of thin variety (Grade A) has been at Rs 1400, officials stated. In December last year, 28.60 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured through as many as 976 procurement centres established across the State.