Rain tests govt’s paddy procurement as farmers give distress call

Hyderabad: Unseasonal torrential rains that hit most parts of the state on Monday and Tuesday may have brought a temporary relief from the extreme heatwave but caused significant distress to the farmers by soaking the paddy they had brought to govt procurement centres.Officials estimate that Siddipet was the worst affected district with 2,976 tonnes of paddy getting drenched in rainwater. Peddapalli and Kamareddy districts followed with 1,100 metric tonnes and 1,065 metric tonnes of soaked paddy respectively.On its part, the govt claimed that the total rain soaked paddy quantity was 10,215 metric tonnes in the state and 18 districts were affected. Irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the govt has procured this entire quantity of rain soaked paddy from the farmers at MSP and the money has been deposited into the bank account of farmers.Civil supplies commissioner Stephen Ravindra confirmed that nearly Rs25 crore have already been paid to the farmers towards MSP for the rain soaked paddy procured from them. “We have shifted this rain drenched paddy to the rice mills having boiled rice milling capacity,” he said.However, various farmers welfare associations leaders said there were many more quantities of rain soaked paddy yet to be purchased from the farmers. The 10,000-odd tonnes of rain soaked paddy quantity being told by the govt, would be there in just two to three mandals, they said.Rythu Swarajya Vedika state committee member Kanneganti Ravi said: “Why is the govt counting or measuring the paddy brought to procurement centres alone? What about the paddy and maize that got soaked due to rains at places stored by the farmers other than the procurement centres. There are lakhs of tonnes of paddy, both dry and rain soaked, that is yet to be procured,” he said.While BRS working president KT Rama Rao and BJP state president N Ramchander Rao have demanded that the state govt not only speed up but also procure every grain soaked by the rain at MSP, civil supplies minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress govt has already announced that paddy, dry or rain soaked would be purchased at MSP. “The BJP MPs should convince the Centre to procure through FCI the entire quantities of paddy being purchased by the state govt from the farmers,” Uttam said.