Appeal to Gogoi for procuring paddy under decentralized system

GUWAHATI: Union ministry for consumer affairs, food and public distribution has asked the Assam government to start procuring paddy from farmers under decentralized procurement system (DPS) for higher paddy production in the state.
The union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution K V Thomas who had a review meeting with the northeast civil supply ministers and officials here on Thursday, said higher paddy production would also ensure minimum support price for farmers in the state.
The Union minister has also asked the state government to sort out land issues soon for, setting up new food storage facility at Changsari here.
The review meeting was attended by Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio, Assam food and civil supplies minister Nazrul Islam, Assam agriculture minister Nilamoni Sen Deka, Mizoram food and civil supplies minister H Rolhuna along with senior officials from the other northeastern states.
Thomas said the review meeting was part of the ministry's ongoing interaction with the states. Four regional meetings were convened in February this year and the subsequent meetings were held with the food ministers and food secretaries of producing and consuming states held on July this year.
"Since the problems faced by the North Eastern States are somewhat different from other states, I thought to have a separate meeting for NE States, as this region is the corner-stone of Centr's Look East Policy" Thomas said.
The Union minister also pointed out that Centre has made substantial allocation of food grains during last year and in the current year for distribution to targeted public distribution system (TPDS) beneficiaries in the northeast.
While allocation of foodgrains for BPL families are made at 35kg per family a month, and for APL families the allocations differ from 15kg to 35kg in various states, he added that for all the northeastern states the monthly APL allocation has been fixed at 35kg per family as a special case.