Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain has written to Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan urging him to release subsidy for paddy procurement in the State.
Swain mentioned that more than 30 lakh metric tonne of paddy has already been procured and Rs 5,400 crore towards MSP transferred to the bank accounts of farmers during the current Kharif Marketing Season 2019-20 and non-release of subsidy by the Centre has disturbed the procurement process.
“Due to non-release of funds, the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) has faced difficulties in taking up further procurement. The Centre has released subsidy of Rs 1434.90 crore only against claim of Rs 4307.17 crore for the quarter ending December, 2019. Rs 2,872.27 crore is yet to be received. The advance subsidy (Rs 1400 crore approximately) for the quarter ending March, 2020 is being submitted within a couple of days. Though as per norm advance subsidy is released in the first month of a quarter, no such subsidy has been released during the entire FY 2019-20,” mentioned Swain.
Swain requested Paswan to personally intervene and ensure pending subsidy and advance subsidy released to the State soon. “Since all the resources, including sanctioned limit of bank finance, have already been exhausted, further paddy procurement from farmers may be severely affected, if the subsidy is not received at the earliest,” he added.
