Government To Buy All Cotton, Paddy This Season: KCR

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today said that the state government itself would purchase the paddy and cotton cultivated this (monsoon) season.

The CM instructed the officials concerned to purchase the entire paddy crop in the state by setting up 6,000 purchasing centres, and ensure that every grain of paddy was purchased and no farmer was put to any problem in the matter.

He reiterated that the government's aim was to stand by the farmers at every stage, from extending financial assistance for crop investment to purchasing the produce.

The CM was speaking at a high-level review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Tuesday on the issue of purchasing the crops of the monsoon season.

Getting into some depth, he said that in Telangana crops were cultivated in 134.87 lakh acres. Of these, 52.77 lakh acres saw the cultivation of paddy, 60.36 lakh acres saw cotton and 10.78 lakh acres saw red gram.

He said that the paddy would be procured completely through IKP centres, cooperative societies and the marketing department, and urged the farmers not to go in for any distress sales. He said that if the paddy had less than 17% moisture, the government would give Rs 1,888 per quintal for A-grade variety and Rs 1,868 per quintal for B-grade variety as the Minimum Support Prices.

The CM also urged the farmers to bring in dried paddy to get the MSP, and not paddy with high moisture which could create problems.

The CM said that the guidelines regarding the purchase of paddy would be released in a day or two, and that the agriculture, marketing and civil supplies departments would work in tandem on the matter.

Speaking about cotton next, the CM said that efforts were on to procure the crop through the Cotton Corporation of India. Continuous discussions were taking place with the CCI in this regard, he said.

He also instructed the officials to clear any doubts that the farmers may have, through the call centres.

Ministers S Niranjan Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar, Rythu Bandhu state President Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, MLA C Laxma Reddy, Chief Advisor to the Government Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy, TESCOB Chairman Konduru Ravindra Rao, Pedapalli ZP Chairman Putta Madhu, Secretary in the CMO Smita Sabharwal, Agriculture Secretary Janardhan Reddy, Civil Supplies Commissioner Anil Kumar, Marketing Director Lakshmibai and others participated in the meeting.