Telangana to procures paddy from 6,408 village centres at MSP

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao said the state has decided to procure paddy during the summer season through 6,408 centres in villages all over the state. He instructed officials to ensure the Minimum Support Price conditions are met and implemented during the procurement.

He clarified that the decision to procure paddy in villages, as was done last year, came following the resurgence of the coronavirus cases. The CM instructed the principal secretary (finance), Ramakrishna Rao, to make arrangements to give Rs. 20,000 crore bank guarantee by Tuesday evening. He also instructed chief secretary Somesh Kumar to conduct an emergency videoconference with all the collectors to discuss the setting up of procurement centres.

Of the 6,408 procurement centres, 2,131 are IKP centres and 3,964 are PACS centres.

KCR asked minister Niranjan Reddy to be in Hyderabad and monitor the setting up of the procurement centres and procurement of paddy. He also instructed agriculture minister and the chief secretary to take all precautions so as not to inconvenience the farmers.

This summer, paddy was cultivated in 52.76 lakh acres and it is expected that the yield would be 1.17 crore metric tonnes of the coarse variety paddy and 21 lakh metric tonnes of the fine variety paddy, KCR said. He instructed the chief secretary to identify lands to be given on lease to the Central Warehousing Corporation which is ready to construct additional godowns to store the foodgrains.

TS farmers to grow cotton in 75-80 lakh acres

Stating that cotton produced in Telangana has a better price in the international market, KCR said in the coming monsoon season, the farmers should be ready to grow cotton in 75 to 80 lakh acres. In this regard, the CM asked the principal secretary (agriculture), Janardhan Reddy, to make arrangements for the procurement of the seed.

In a similar way, arrangements should also be made to cultivate red gram in 20 to 25 lakh acres in the state, KCR said, adding if cotton and red gram crops were given water periodically, the yield would be more.

Ensure water to tail-end lands: CM

The CM also instructed the water resources department officials to ensure that water is supplied to the lands under the irrigation projects for another 10 days so that the crops do not dry. He said farmers from Suryapet district are complaining that tail end lands are not getting water. KCR has ordered the officials to ensure that water is supplied to the tail end lands and said not a single acre should dry up due to lack of water.

KCR instructed engineer in chief B. Shankar to supply Kaleswaram water to tail-end lands in Suryapet district under the jurisdiction of Lower Maner Dam to DBM-71.