Paddy arrivals in the procurement centres of the primary co-operative committees have so far reached 23.4 lakh metric tonnes in the State.
Out of the 23.4 lakh metric tonnes of paddy arrivals so far in the 1,971 procurement centres of 1,333 co-operative committees, 9.37 lakh metric tonnes is of ‘Grade A’ variety and 13.65 lakh metric tonnes is of ‘Common’ variety. The State Government has, so far, paid more than Rs305 crore to the farmers for the paddy procured from them at support prices.
The highest quantum of paddy arrival had taken place in Mahasamund district at 2.92 lakh metric tonnes so far. The special paddy procurement drive which commenced on October 21 this year would continue till February 15, 2014.
Notably, Chief Minister Raman Singh, after taking oath as the Chief Minister of the State for the third consecutive time, immdiately shot a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to approve the support price for paddy at Rs2,100 per quintal as was mentioned in the BJP’s poll manifesto.
The Chief Minister in his letter had also stated that the Congress had mentioned the support price of paddy in its poll manifesto at Rs2,000 per quintal.