Reiterating the assurance of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao that procurement of farmer’s rabi produce will be at the doorstep, as per minimum support price and purchased till the last grain, Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy on Saturday directed officials to make necessary arrangements.
“All the 563 revenue villages in Nalgonda will have procurement centres, and they will be operated by primary agriculture cooperative societies and Indira Kranthi Patham centres,” he said.
An estimated six lakh metric tonne paddy would be purchased in the district, and mandals such as Nalgonda, Miryalaguda, Nagarjunasagar, PA Pally and Mallepally, which produce higher yields should have multiple centres and procurement strategy, he told officials.
Addressing a review meeting with District Collector Prashant Patil, Superintendent of Police A.V. Ranganath and all heads of departments here, Mr. Reddy directed them to take all preventive measures to help curb spread of the virus during the procurement process.
Every centre should have sanitiser and hand wash facility, drinking water and a tent for farmers, and sufficient tarpaulin covers, weighing scales, moisture meters, gunny bags should be arranged.
Mr. Reddy instructed officials to identify specific procurement area in all villages, where social-distance measures can be followed. And purchase arrangements are to be done at the nearest point, such as village entrances, in case the access to large trucks is not possible, he said.
Urging rice millers and lorry associations to step up for the exercise in this difficult time, he requested them to follow a token system approved by local police, to run the driver and hamali worker system smoothly.
Mr. Reddy urged the Police not to obstruct farmers from attending their daily agriculture work.
Later in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district, he held a review with District Collector Anita Ramachandran and other senior leaders and officials.
An estimated 3.55 lakh metric tonne paddy would be brought to procurement centres from 1,08,895 farmers, officials said. A total of 277 procurement centres will be operated, and the minimum support price for a quintal of grade A paddy will be ₹ 1835 and ₹ 1815 for the common grade variety.
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