Jharkhand: Will set up more rice mills and pay MSP on time, assures CM
By Jaideep Deogarhia
Assuring to streamline the process of paddy procurement and pay minimum support prices (MSP) on time to farmers, chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday told the assembly that the number of rice mills in the state was being increased.
He was clarifying the govt’s stand on the issue in response to a question raised by Jairam Mahto of the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha. Mahto asked if the state govt has any plans to make a one-time payment to the farmers for the paddy procured instead of giving the amount in instalments.
The question was initially answered by the minister for food and civil supplies, Irfan Ansari, who said that 50% of the payment was made to the farmers on the spot and the remaining 50% was paid after verification. “One-time payment may lead to corruption if the farmer is not verified,” he said.
As Mahto insisted on developing a system so that farmers do not have to wait for the payment of their own produce, the chief minister interjected and clarified the situation. He admitted that with limited space for the storage of paddy, the process of paddy procurement was rotational and continued throughout the year. “Unless the paddy is milled to rice, there is a paucity of storage and hence, it is procured in batches. We admit that in some districts, the process is faster and in some, comparatively slower, but once the number of rice mills is increased, the cycle of procuring paddy, getting it milled and supplying rice would be faster,” Hemant said.
In a related matter, Hemlal Murmu of JMM asked about the govt’s plan to increase the number of cold storage facilities in the state and the operation of the 30-metric tonne cold storage units. Responding to his question, agriculture minister Shilpi Neha Tirkey said since the Large Area Multipurpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPS) and Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) operating the five-metric tonne cold storage facilities were not equipped to operate the 30MT units, the govt has started engaging private agencies for the purpose.
“We completed the target of constructing 109 units of 5 MT cold storage facilities and efforts are on to make the 30MT units operational, besides developing a plan to establish model cold storage units,” she said. Responding to the supplementary question of Murmu, Tirkey further said it was not in the govt plan to open cold storage at the block level but a policy was prepared to obtain recommendations from the MLAs to open the facility in their respective constituencies.
Earlier, Neera Yadav of BJP raised the matter of a large number of women being de-listed from the Maiya Samman Scheme. “It is good that the ineligible are being removed but in that process, some of the genuine and eligible candidates are also being struck off,” she informed.
In response, minister Chamra Linda assured the development of a standard operating procedure (SoP) and the inclusion of criteria in it as suggested by Yadav.
This article has been republished from The Times of India.