State pushes to speed up paddy procurement

Kolkata: The state Food and Supplies department has taken a slew of measures, including enhancement in the quantity of procuring paddy from each farmer, to speed up procurement across the state.

The state has been procuring a maximum of 45 quintals of paddy from each farmer which has been doubled to 90 quintals.

The department’s procurement target is 60 lakh metric tonnes. The state till date has managed to procure 50 lakh metric tonnes. The procurement process that started from November last year is expected to continue till the beginning of September. The process of paddy procurement had slowed down since April this year.

“We have issued directions for keeping all its centralised procurement centres (CPC’s) and purchase centres open on all days. We have also asked for hosting camps in remote villages across the state,” a senior official of state Food and Supplies department said.

The department for the time being has also relaxed the process of Aadhaar authentication through biometric scanning which they feel has caused delays in the process of purchasing paddy.

The conventional process of mobile number authentication that was followed at the beginning of the Kharif season will be used for procurement.

The department will keep a special vigil to ensure that transparency is followed during the procurement process. Strong directions have been issued to ensure that paddy is procured from genuine farmers.

The department has already issued facilities for farmers to do online bookings in advance for selling their paddy. Procurement will be done through camps run by self-help groups, farmer producer companies (FPO), primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) etc.