Paddy Procurement In Odisha: Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain Urges Centre To Release Pending Subsidy

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha authorities on Tuesday requested the Centre for early launch of the pending subsidy of Rs 6,039 crore to finish the paddy procurement course of within the state.
State Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain, in a letter to Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal, mentioned that the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC), which undertakes paddy procurement, has thus far borrowed a staggering sum of Rs 15,000 crore to run the programme by means of upfront funding.
“This high volume of bank loan is mainly due to non-release of subsidy by the Department of Food and Public Distribution. OSCSC has pending claims towards provisional and advance subsidy of Rs 6,039 crore,” mentioned Swain.
Since all sources together with the sanctioned restrict of financial institution funds has been exhausted by the OSCSC, the pending subsidy could also be launched urgently as additional paddy procurement from farmers can be severely affected, he added.
Swain additionally knowledgeable Goyal that the Food Corporation of India has requested the state authorities to restrict the supply of surplus parboiled rice of Odisha to the extent of fifty per cent of the final 12 months supply and to not settle for any surplus within the type of parboiled rice in the course of the Rabi season of the present Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21.
“Odisha is primarily a parboiled rice consuming state. Raw rice is consumed only in six districts. Most of the rice mills in the state are parboiled mills. Therefore, asking the state to deliver surplus rice in the form of raw rice in Rabi and to limit procurement of parboiled rice in the Kharif to the extent of 50 per cent of last year FCI delivery will have far-reaching adverse consequences for the state,” he mentioned.