Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel has written letter to Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, requesting hike in support price of paddy to Rs 2500 per quintal in year 2019-20 in larger interest of farmers. If in any case, Government of India is unable to increase minimum support price as mentioned above, Mr. Baghel has requested permission for State Government to procure paddy at this price. Chief Minister has also requested for permission to procure 32 lakh metric tons of rice in FCI.
Chief Minister stated in the letter that paddy procurement from farmers of Chhattisgarh in the upcoming kharif marketing year 2019-20 will be commenced from November 15 and necessary arrangement for the same have also been done. In July month also, Mr. Baghel had written letter requesting hike in support price of paddy to Rs 2500 per quintal in kharif year 2019-20. Previously as well, he had stated in the letter that if in any case, Government of India is unable to hike minimum support price of paddy, then State Government should be allowed to procure paddy at this price under decentralized foodgrains procurement scheme. He had also requested slackening of conditions in section-1 of the MoU, in larger interest of farmers of the state, and provide permission to include surplus rice (arwa and usna) procured in central pool, after State’s PDS requirement is met.
Chief Minister said that he had written letter to Union Food Minister in September month, requesting procurement of surplus 32 LMT rice in Food Corporation of India in kharif year 2019-20.
Chief Minister stated in his letter to Prime Minister that earlier also FCI had been including surplus rice of kharif season in the central pool. Because of which it became possible to procure paddy from farmers of even the remote areas at support price, and also after custom milling of paddy, procurement of rice by FCI enabled important contribution of state in meeting requirement of rice for NFSA.
Chief Minister stated that like previous years, Chhattisgarh is interesting in contribution rice for central pool of FCI in year 2019-20. Chief Minister stated that in view of the urgency of the matter, I tried taking appointment to meet you at your office on October 23-24, so that I could personally inform you about all the aspects of this matter. But possibly because of your other engagements, appointment for meeting could not be provided. There is hardly any time left for paddy procurement to begin. Hence, I request you to consider aforementioned matter on compassionate note in larger interest of the farmers and to issue necessary guidelines for providing permission to procure 32LMT rice in FCI in kharif year 2019-20 to meet rice requirement under NFSA as soon as possible.
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