Raipur, 22 January 2022. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel took a big decision today keeping in mind the interest of the farmers of the state. During the review of the support price of paddy procurement in the state through video conferencing at his residence office, the Chief Minister announced an increase of one week in the stipulated period of paddy procurement. Paddy will now be procured from farmers in the state till February 7. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shri Amarjit Bhagat also attended the meeting through video conferencing. Chief Secretary Mr. Amitabh Jain, Additional Chief Secretary Mr. Subrata Sahu, Agriculture Production Commissioner Dr. Kamalpreet Singh, Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Siddharth Komal Singh Pardeshi, Food Secretary Mr. Topeshwar Verma, Co-operative Secretary Mr. Himshikhar Gupta, NAN MD Mr. Niranjan Das. including other officers were present.
While reviewing the updated status of paddy procurement, Chief Minister Shri Bhupesh Baghel directed the officers to ensure arrangements for the millers to lift the paddy directly from the societies. He said that with this saving the transportation cost of the procured paddy, custom milling would be done faster. The Chief Minister directed to expedite the custom milling work besides ensuring 100% off-take of paddy by the month of April. Along with the procurement of paddy, the Chief Minister also asked to pay special attention to the payment of farmers’ amount. The Chief Minister described the deposit of 6 lakh metric tonnes of rice in FCI in today’s situation as an achievement and appreciated it. The Chief Minister said that it should be ensured that rice is stored in FCI continuously as per the target.
In the meeting, Food Secretary Mr. Topeshwar Verma informed that 78.92 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured in the state as on January 21, which is 75 percent of this year’s degraded target. He informed that 24 lakh 5 thousand farmers have registered for selling paddy this year. The registered area of paddy is 30 lakh 21 thousand hectare. This year the number of registered farmers has increased by 2 lakh 52 thousand and area has increased by 2 lakh 28 thousand hectare, which is 11.76 percent and 8.20 percent more respectively than last year. He said that so far about 19 lakh farmers have sold paddy. The value of paddy purchased on support price is Rs 15 thousand 335 crore. 100% amount has been paid to the farmers. This year 71 thousand bales of gunny bags were made available by the farmers for the purchase of paddy, the total amount of which is 88.8%. 20 crore has been paid. He informed that 41 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been lifted. Adequate gunny bags are available in the state for the purchase of paddy. Now for the remaining period, 1.30 lakh bales of gunny will be required for the purchase of paddy in the state, whereas 1.52 bales of gunny are available for this. He said that in lieu of paddy procured this year, about 6 lakh metric tonnes in FCI and 4.63 lakh metric tonnes in Naan, thus totaling 10.57 lakh metric tonnes have been deposited.
Raipur: Chief Minister announced to extend the period of paddy procurement in the state by one week
