The State Cabinet on Monday approved a proposal for making material procurements from Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) instead of Central Government's e-Marketing portal (GeM).
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also took a decision to amend the Chhattisgarh Store Purchase Rules 2002 to start material procurements from CSIDC.
The CSIDC will create a new portal for online procurements within six months, Water Resources Minister Ravindra Choubey informed while addressing a press conference here.
It was informed in the meeting that the State had set a target of 75 lakh metric tonnes of paddy for the current Kharif season out of which 71 lakh metric tonnes of paddy had been procured, he said.
The deadline for paddy procurement is January 31, 2019 and the government is targetting to procure around 88 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, Choubey said.
The State government will also write a letter to the Central government to make quantity of rice weighing 32 lakh metric tonnes from the Central pool for Chhattisgarh from 24 lakh metric tones , he said.
The target for rice procurement from the Central pool was 24 lakh metric tonnes and after sending rice in the Central and State pools, the State will utilise 6.85 lakh metric tonnes of rice through Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation, Choubey said.
The Cabinet also decided to increase by two years to period of recruitment in district cadre of employees in Surguja and Bastar division and Korba district of Class III and IV employees, he said.
Just for the record, a total of 14 agriculture mandis in Chhattisgarh had been linked to e-market (e-NAM) platform so far, the Central Government had informed earlier.
In the entire country, 585 wholesale regulated markets/ Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Markets have been so far integrated with e-market (e-NAM) platform in 16 States and 2 Union Territories (UTs), who have carried out requisite reforms in their State Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act (APMC Act).
States desirous of linking their mandis with e-NAM are required to carry out three marketing reforms in their APMC Act i.e. Single point levy of mandi fee, Unified trade license valid across all mandis of State and Provision of e-auction. After carrying out reforms, States are required to propose their wholesale regulated markets for integration with e-NAM platform based on States priorities, which are then considered by Government of India for integration, it informed.
States / UTs, which either do not have marketing regulation or have one which is not in force, must identify Institution with legally enforceable guidelines, which will develop the appropriate physical infrastructure and put in place facilitatory provisions required for e-trading on e-NAM platform including registration of traders/farmers.
Therefore, mandi integration with e-NAM platform is an ongoing process. The Central Government is pursuing with rest of States/Union Territories to propose their market integration after completing requisite provisions, it informed.
