The smaller private holler mills in the rural pockets of the district may receive work for custom milling of State Government procured paddy on support price from the primary co-operative credit committees.
An assurance to this effect was offered by Chief Minister Raman Singh on a proposal put forward by a delegation of members from the Madhuvan Dham Holler Mill Owners Federation from Magarload village in Dhamatari district during the Jandarshan programme held at his residence here on Thursday.
President of the Madhuvan Dham Holler Mill Owners Federation Kunj Bihari informed the Chief Minister that the small mills in the villages of the district had already been involved in milling of paddy at a local level for many years now.
He said that some of urban pockets of Dhamtari district have large number of small holler mills which are managed by rural youth.
Bihari said that if the Government starts offering custom milling work to these small mills for the paddy procured from the primary agricultural credit co-operative committees, a large number of youth in the rural and semi-urban pockets of the district would be able to get seasonal employment besides timely milling of the paddy made available by the committees would be ensured.
The Federation president also handed over a memorandum to the Chief Minister on the occasion with the demand for lowering the electricity and mandi fee for the millers.
In other applications put forward by the farmer representatives from Kishanpur village in Pithora Development Block of Mahasamund district and Sarkanda village of Basna Development Block, it was demanded that paddy procurement centres be opened in both the villages. To this, the Chief Minister immediately asked the District Collector in Mahasamund to examine the demands of the farmers and take immediate action.A large number of people and farmers from across the State were present during the Jandarshan programme.