Host of rice millers from the State sat with Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Saryu Roy on Wednesday and agreed to lift paddy purchased from the farmers. The Minister, in turn, assured them to look into their genuine concerns.
A senior official of the Department, informing about the meeting, said that the millers had been warned with stern action if they fail to purchase the paddy procured by the agencies appointed by the Government.
“It has come to our notice that there is considerable slowness in the paddy purchases by the rice mills, also in the comparison of previous years. They complained about their pending payments with the rice procuring agencies which we would look into. A clear agreement with them would be signed from the next time. With all this they have agreed to start lifting of paddy from the procurement centres without any delay,” said he.
later, Roy also expressed his displeasure over sluggish pace of paddy purchase by the agencies and also the millers. “The centres opened by agencies are filled up with the paddy purchased from the farmers since the millers are not lifting the grain from them. Now, they have agreed to start lifting the paddy immediately. If they fail, then strict action would be taken against the mill owners,” said the Minister.
The Government has set a target to purchase 40 lakh quintals of paddy from the farmers this year. The farmers had sold 78,519 MT of paddy last year till the time despite drought whereas in 2017 the purchase of 60,895 MT has been made so far despite being a favourable monsoon year this time around.
“The Government has made the paddy purchase system more transparent this time and made it sure that the grain is purchased from actual farmers only and not by adopting fraudulent means. This might have been one of the reasons behind the situation. But we are not going to tolerate middlemen in the system anymore and the paddy would be bought only from genuine farmers,”
said Roy.
The State Government is providing `150 per quintal as bonus which has taken the minimum support price for paddy up to `1750. The lucrative pricing has allegedly attracted rice businessmen from neighbouring states to come here and sell the grain to local paddy purchase centres, depriving the actual farmers of the benefits.
“It is also draining for the Government which is offering better price for paddy than any other state from its own resources. We are making sure that no bungling is done,” said Secretary of the Department Vinay Kumar Chaubey. In the meeting, the Minister also instructed Department officials to consult all the DCs to ensure lifting of the purchased paddy from the centres.