The Centre in its meeting held with the States has reviewed procurement and storage arrangements for kharif marketing season (KMS) 2012-13 and sensed that in order to maximize procurement of paddy and coarse grains advance actions need to be taken in producing States, particularly in decentralized procurement States and other non-traditional States. Besides, FCI and State agencies were asked to provide district wise details of purchase centre to be opened during 2012-13. They were also directed to identify areas with maximum paddy production in all the States and to arrange opening of adequate purchase centre and to deploy sufficient manpower.
The Central Food Secretary also directed that with the help of print and audio-visual media, FCI and State Governments should make arrangements for publicizing minimum support price (MSP) and procurement centres. In the meeting the food secretaries of the respective states were also requested to indicate the estimated procurement of paddy and coarse grains and the levy percentage proposed in their respective States along with finalising milling contracts in advance for the paddy to be procured.
Moreover, to meet the deficit in storage requirements an action plan need to be chalked out in advance for which the States were asked to prepare storage plans and to convey it to the Centre. All purchased done by FCI from farmers need to be done by account payee cheques or direct account transfer. The Centre has also requested that for sufficient number of jute bags and HDPE bags to be available in time the order for purchase of bags should be placed in advance to Jute Commissioner’s office.
Further, the States were also requested to furnish state-wise estimate of procurement, period of procurement and demand for rice and coarse grains under targeted public distribution system (TPDS).