Telangana cracks a whip on defaulting rice millers

Hyderabad, Aug 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) Cracking the whip on rice millers for defaulting on Custom Milled Rice (CMR) targets, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Wednesday directed officials to intensify the recovery of dues owed by the millers.

Stating that the government adopted a cooperative approach towards millers who operate with a genuine business mindset, the Chief Minister warned that it would deal sternly with those who deliberately attempt to evade payments.

The Chief Minister, along with Civil Supplies Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, held a review of the civil supplies department's performance.

The Chief Minister accused the previous government of indulging in irregularities in collecting dues from the millers, which caused the accumulation of dues in thousands of crores. He took strong exception to the opposition parties for blaming the present government for the recovery of mounting dues from the rice millers.

When the official briefed on the progress in recovering the dues, CM Revanth Reddy insisted that the value of every single grain must be recovered. He instructed officials to formulate specific guidelines for a process to recover the dues and submit the report to the Cabinet Sub-Committee.

The State government would take an appropriate decision following the Cabinet Sub-Committee's review, the CM said, announcing that the paddy previously allocated to millers who have become defaulters would instead be allocated to women's groups and the milling responsibilities would be entrusted to them.

Noting the recurring difficulties in storing paddy stocks every season, CM Revanth Reddy instructed officials to formulate an action plan immediately. A pilot project for constructing silo bags would be taken up in districts with high paddy yields - Nalgonda, Suryapet, Nizamabad, Peddapalli, and Kamareddy.

The Chief Minister also announced that 50 to 100 acres of land per constituency would be allocated for these silo bag facilities, to be managed by Self-Help Groups (SHGs). A meeting would be convened with the Ministers of Revenue, Civil Supplies, and Women's Welfare to discuss the construction of these facilities.

The CM suggested exploring the possibility of the construction of spacious platforms under the VBG- Ram G scheme and using German tents for paddy storage in the available space. The officials were also instructed to identify private warehouses, function halls, old cinema theatres, and other sheds at the mandal and village levels in advance and lease them for paddy storage.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister posted on X that Telangana farmers have produced record-breaking paddy produce in response to ryots-centric policies like farm loan waiver, Rythu Bima, Rythu Bharosa, 24-by-7 free power, and water availability in most districts in the last two years.

The Chief Minister posted a newspaper clipping of an article by Prof Aldas Janaiah, vice-chancellor, Prof Jayashankar Telangana Agriculture University, saying the writer argues that the Kaleshwaram project has got no role in this abundant paddy production in Telangana.

“Good monsoon in the last 10 years was the major reason for the bountiful of paddy yield in the State. An additional 40 lakh acres came under cultivation due to 15 lakh new borewells in the state. Borewells are singularly responsible for 100 per cent growth in the irrigable area in Telangana. Farmers' welfare is determined by the net income that can overcome the growing irrigation expenditure. However, Telangana has not shown any growth on that front in the last 10 years. The entire opposition hoax on agriculture has been exposed. Case over! It is the Congress Praja Palana that has started the transformation of farmers’ destiny and prosperity,” he wrote.

Source: IANS