Minister for Civil Supplies S.Niranjan Reddy has said that the government purchased 35 lakh tonnes of paddy from 6.17 lakh farmers during Rabi season so far and is expecting another three to five lakh tonnes of paddy by the close of purchase centres.
The Civil Supplies Department will buy paddy to the last seed. Keeping in view unseasonal rains, the Department was transporting the procured paddy to the mills immediately. So far 34.75 lakh tonnes of paddy has been sent to the mills.
The Civil Supplies Commissioner has been instructed to make payments for the procured paddy overcoming the technical problems. In the next 10 working days, 100 % funds would be credited into farmers’ accounts, he said.
Mr. Niranjan Reddy in a release said that Chief Minister had given instructions prior to the Rabi season that no inconvenience or hardships be caused to the farmers pertaining to purchase of paddy and payments. Accordingly the personnel of Civil Supplies were working diligently at the field level. It is estimated that ₹7,000 crore would be required for purchase of paddy during Rabi from the farmers and government has enough funds, he said.
Online system
An online system was brought into vogue for payment of minimum support price in full scale and the moment a truck sheet was generated online, the amount would be credited to the account of the farmer directly.
The Civil Supplies Department has developed Online Procurement Management System to facilitate paddy purchase, payments , giving information about purchase centres to farmers through mobile phones and payment of Minimum Support Price. The software OPMS was implemented only from this Rabi season and some technical problems cropped up here and there. As a result some delay occurred in registering the details of paddy purchase online and subsequent payments.
The department set up 3,520 purchase centres across the State for the benefit of farmers. The centre organisers would record the details of paddy purchased online through tabs and send them to the district office and from there to the Central office. Once the Central office gave its approval, amount would be credited to the farmers, he said.