In a welcome initiative, the Telangana Government will shortly launch a new weather app to alert procurement centres and farmers on hourly basis about the weather conditions.
The new app would ensure that the farmers are saved from crop losses by taking advance measures. Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka in his Telangana Budget 2024-25 speech in the State Assembly on Thursday said that in the earlier regime, payments to the farmers for the purchase of paddy by Civil Supplies Corporation were always irregular and delayed.
“Our government has reduced the payment time to 21 - 48 hours and we have been paying promptly within the time limit. This will immensely benefit the farmers and also reduces corruption and manipulation. Till now, we have paid an amount of ₹10,556 crores to farmers,” Mr. Bhatti said.
Stating that Telangana’s PDS System is the largest in the world and plays an important role in feeding the poor, the Deputy CM said it has become imperative on the Government to take remedial measures to restore the derailed PDS system in the State. “We have started implementing paddy procurement in a systematic manner. Keeping in view the severity of summer this year, we have increased paddy procurement centres to 7,178 to help the farmers in this rabi season,” he remarked.
Due recovered from erring millers
The Deputy CM said that for the period 2010 to 2023, nearly thousand millers defaulted on payments to the tune of ₹3,000 crore. The millers avoided supplying rice to the Government and used it for their own business for years together. It was done in the plain sight of everyone but still Governments turned a blind eye to such fraudulent practices.
“Immediately after we came to power, we have initiated remedial measures and strict action was initiated against the defaulting millers. During the last six months, the vigilance department has raided many millers and recovered their dues. We have already collected ₹450 crores from the defaulting millers and have initiated action under Revenue Recovery Act against 60 millers for collecting ₹509 crores arrears,” the Deputy CM noted.
Due to the continuous and effective supervision by Civil Supplies department, deliveries to Food Corporation of India (FCI) have hastened and 36 LMT paddy has been delivered in six months. “We have taken up the long pending issues with the Central Government and FCI and adopted new strategies. With this, we could get ₹3561.64 crores from Central Government and FCI. At the same time we could reduce our loans by ₹1323.86 crores. The effectiveness of the measures taken is already evident in the functioning of civil supplies department. We have proposed ₹3,836 crores in this budget for Civil Supplies Department,” Mr. Bhatti pointed out.
