30.37 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured in the state, nearly Rs.6365 crore paid to the farmers

17.18 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been lifted from the societies for custom milling

Raipur 06 December . Since the inception of paddy procurement at support price in the state, about 30.36 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been purchased by the state government so far till Monday. Nearly Rs. 6365 crore has been paid to 8 lakh 20 thousand 852 farmers in the lieu of paddy purchase. The entire system is being closely monitored so that farmers do not face any kind of problem in selling paddy. Sufficient quantity of gunny bags are available in all the procurement centres.

Due to the proper arrangement of paddy procurement by the state government, farmers are reaching the paddy procurement centres with great enthusiasm. The ‘Token Tunhar Haath’ mobile app has been developed by the state for the convenience of farmers coming to sell their paddy. Now they do not have to wait in long queues as they are getting tokens online through the mobile app. Besides, tokens are also being issued manually in advance keeping in view the convenience of farmers.

The Food Secretary Mr. Topeshwar Verma said that in the current season, nearly 25.92 lakh farmers have been registered in the state to sell paddy at the state support price, including 2.23 lakh new registrations. As many as 2568 procurement centres have been set up for paddy procurement in the state. This year, normal paddy is being purchased from farmers at the rate of Rs.2040 per quintal and grade-A paddy at Rs.2060 per quintal. Strict vigil is being maintained through check posts to prevent illegal transportation of paddy from border states.He added that the work of lifting paddy for paddy is being done simultaneously with the paddy procurement like last year. So far, D.O. has been issued for the lifting of 24.51 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, in lieu of which 17.18 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been lifted from the procurement centres.

Till December 05, a total of 1,91,317 metric tonnes of paddy has been procured from 54,565 farmers. Apart from this, more than 53,295 metric tonnes of paddy has been procured from farmers who obtained online tokens. About 73,320 offline tokens and 16,382 online tokens have been issued across the state.