Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has urged Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal to permit procurement of 26 lakh tonnes of parboiled (usna) rice and 14 lakh tonnes of raw (arwa) rice by the FCI under the central pool in Kharif year 2020-21.
This follows the timely custom milling of paddy purchased from farmers on MSP in the state and proper utilization of the state’s (usna and arwa) custom milling capacity of Chhattisgarh, he said in a letter to the Central Minister.
Baghel said that 400 usna rice mills in the state have usna milling capacity of 5.68 lakh tonnes per month and 1,504 arwa rice mills have arwa milling capacity of 18.83 lakh tonnes per month.
Stating that the Food Corporation of India in Kharif year 2016-17 and earlier procured parboiled as well as raw rice, the Chief Minister said the FCI should buy the surplus paddy (parboiled and raw) from the state so that paddy procured under DCP scheme can be timely processed without any damage to paddy.
He wrote that the Centre has approved the action plan to take 60 lakh tonnes of rice after custom milling of paddy to be procured at the support price in the Kharif marketing year 2020-21 in Chhattisgarh.
Of this, it is expected that 40 lakh tonnes surplus rice will be procured by the FCI under central pool and 20 lakh tonnes rice bought by the Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation for requirement under PDS.
