The procurement centers have received 5.62 lakh metric tonnes of paddy so far in the special procurement campaign, officials informed.
The procurement which commenced on November 15 will carry on till January 31, 2018.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh State Co-operative Marketing Federation (MARKED) has advanced Rs 40.22 crore to Co-operative Central Banks for Co-operative Committees in 1992 procurement centres for paddy purchase, MARKFED Chairman Radhakrishna Gupta informed recently.
He said that MARKFED is a nodal agency for paddy procurement from farmers .
Gupta had earlier announced that the Federation would construct a Commercial Complex in the premises of Nutan Kisan Rice Mill in Raipur at a cost of Rs 100 crore.
He said that 10 Kisan rice mills in the State would also be modernised to increase their storage capacity.
Gupta said that in the ongoing Kharif season, a target had been set to store 6.5 lajh tonnes of chemical fertilizers.
On the other hand notably, five cities of Chhattisgarh now have the Core-PDS system implemented involving a total of 484 ration shops, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh has achieved 100 per cent digitisation of the Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries database.
There are 23 other states in the country which have also achieved 100 per cent digitisation of the PDS database, officials stated.
Moreover, the Chhattisgarh government is now also preparing a plan to use Aadhaar cards to identify Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries.
It has prepared a comprehensive action plan for ensuring total transparency in the preparation of ration cards besides evolving a mechanism for error-free identity of Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries.
Under the action plan, the mobile, bank account and Aadhaar numbers of the beneficiaries are being collected.
Chhattisgarh’s Public Distribution System (PDS) model has gram panchayats, co-operative societies and women’s self help groups (SHGs) operating the fair price shops, officials stated.
About 90 per cent of the masses are covered under Food and Nutrition Security Act was implemented in 2013, officials stated.
Chhattisgarh’s PDS under Antyodaya and Priority families schemes provides 35 kg foodgrains at Rs 1 per kilo. Since June 2014 single member category ration card-holders under destitutes segment are provided 10 kg food grains free of cost.
The Chhattisgarh Government will be setting up a ‘Project Monitoring Unit’ for successful implementation of Paddy Procurement, Storage and Disposal system in the State, officials informed.
Notably, Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has stated that paddy procurement is already robust in Chhattisgarh and Odisha states.
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has initiated special efforts for procurement in the Eastern States of India, where there were frequent complaints of distress sale of paddy and procurement system was ineffective, it stated.
Accordingly, State-wise five-year Action Plan has been drawn by FCI for Uttar Pradesh (with focus on Eastern UP), Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam, where concerns exist about distress sale of paddy , it stated.
Attempt is to increase procurement of rice in these States so as to reach out to all farmers in various paddy growing districts of these States. The procurement target from the eastern states by the end of Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2019-20 is 155.93 Lakh MT. Presently, the figure stands at 53.65 LMT for KMS 2014-15.
Accordingly, FCI opened 635 procurement centres (including 401 with private support) in KMS 2015-16 and 722 (including 459 with private support) in KMS 2016-17 (as on 28.03.2017) comparison to only 141 in previous Season. Total 61841 and 20063 (as on 28.03.2017) procurement centres have been opened in KMS 2015-16 and KMS 2016-17 respectively.
Due to these efforts of FCI, State agencies and private players, the procurement of rice has been increased to 70.70 LMT in KMS 2015-16 and 63.99 LMT in the ongoing KMS 2016-17.
In consultation with the States, it was decided to procure 330.00 lakh MT of wheat during Rabi Marketing Season 2017-18, which is considerably more in comparison with the last season’s actual procurement of 229.61 lakh MT.
It may be recalled that the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED) had released Rs 1,301 crore to district cooperative central banks for taking up paddy procurement exercise, the State Government had informed on November 30 last year in a press release.
“The money would be transferred online in the bank accounts of farmers selling their paddy on support price,” President of MARKFED Radhakrishna Gupta had stated.
The State government decided to purchase 65 lakh metric tonnes of paddy during the Kharif Marketing Season for year 2016-17.
The procurement season that had started on November 15, 2016 and ended on January 31, 2017.
Notably, Chhattisgarh stood second in the country in Kharif season 2015-16 among a list of 18 states with targetted procurement of 36 lakh metric tonnes of paddy crop during 2015-16 as per information made available by the Central Government in that year. Punjab was ranked first in the country in 2015-16 Kharif season among 18 states in the country with paddy procurement target of 82 lakh metric tonnes , according to the data of 18 states released by the Centre.
In a meeting of State Food Secretaries held in New Delhi in 2015-16, the
procurement target for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2015-16 was finalised at atotal of 300 lakh metric tonnes in the rice growing states.
States were asked to identify immediately areas with maximum paddy production and to open adequate purchase centers and deploy sufficient manpower. They have also been advised to make arrangements for publicizing MSP fixed, procurement centers opened through print and audio-visual media as well as through pamphlets in local languages, officials had stated.
The Governments have also been asked to prepare details of storage plan for the ensuing Kharif Marketing Season and have an action plan to meet the deficit in storage requirements, if required, they had stated.
Regarding Packaging material, Food Secretaries were requested to place indents for purchase of jute bags in time to avoid last minute shortage of packaging material.
The States were also requested to furnish, on daily basis, the revenue district-wise procurement details of previous day for Online Procurement Monitoring System (OPMS).
The FCI was directed to constitute joint teams with the State Governments to oversee the conduct of procurement operations and to attend specific complaints, problems etc, officials stated.
Chhattisgarh has achieved 97 per cent of Aadhaar seeding for ration cards as on March 14, 2017, the Central Government has informed.
The Department of Food and Public Distribution is implementing a Plan Scheme on ‘End-to-end Computerisation of TPDS Operations’ during 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17). Initially the implementation of the project was slow and uneven across the country due to delay in finalization of action plans by States/UTs, late submission of their proposal for financial assistance and practical problems faced during implementation of the project.
However, due to vigorous efforts and constant monitoring of the project through meetings, Video Conferences, visits, letters and advisories with States/UTs to review their progress/problems being faced etc., there has been significant progress in implementation of the project and ration cards have been completely digitized in all States/UTs, transparency portal and online grievance rederessal facility/Toll-free number have been implemented in all States/UTs, online allocation has been implemented in 29 States/UTs and supply chain has been computerized in 20 States/UTs.
The validity of the scheme has been extended by one year i.e. upto March 31, 2018 without any escalation in the project cost to complete the project.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government has been using information technology as a perfect tool to revolutionise its model public distribution system (PDS) in its attempt to ensure the delivery of highly subsidized food items to ration shops across the state to feed its millions of poor families.
“IT has completely reformed the public distribution system (PDS) in Chhattisgarh, so much that Chhattisgarh’s PDS has been recognized as the best PDS model in the country,” a government statement claimed.
Ministers and officials from 20 states of the country have observed the PDS model of Chhattisgarh and it has been awarded with five national awards.
Chhattisgarh government has done computerization of all fair price shops in state to bring transparency and ensure accountability in public distribution system. In addition to this, ration card are also being linked with the aadhaar card numbers to ensure proper identification of eligible beneficiaries.
Linkage of aadhaar cards to ration cards has provided the beneficiaries with the facility to avail ration supply from any of the computerized fair price shops of their area. With this system, beneficiaries will not have to bring their ration cards to ration shop, as they can easily receive their share of ration using their aadhaar card number. Through aadhaar card number, beneficiaries will also be able to avail Central Government’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme.
For computerization of PDS, all the District Food Offices have been linked with headquarters through internet. All 125 fair price shops of Chhattisgarh Civil Supply Corporation have been equipped with internet connectivity.
To enhance transparency and to ensure public participation in PDS, Chhattisgarh Government’s Food Civil Supply and Consumer Protection Department has made all the necessary arrangements using information technology.