AP to procure onions from Nashik

Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has directed agricultural, marketing and civil supplies departments to implement the market intervention scheme (MIS) for bringing bring down the prices of onions, vegetables and other essential commodities.

At a review meeting of prices of essential commodities, input subsidy distribution to farmers and paddy procurement today, he suggested the marketing department supply vegetables at subsidised prices of Rs 49 and Rs 99 at rythu bazaars in Hyderabad first and later extended them to other districts.

The Rs 99-package will have a kg each of tomato, potato, brinjal and carrot and one each cauliflower and cabbage, 250 gram green chillies and two kg onion. The Rs 49-package will have a kg of tomato, half kg each potato, brinjal, carrot and one each cauliflower and cabbage apart form 250 gm green chillies and one kg onion.

The chief minister asked the officials to launch mobile rythu bazaars to sell onions through the MIS. Till now, 6,791 quintals of onion had been sold under this scheme. Onions, he said, should be procured from Nashik and supplied to rythu bazaars at Rs 20-24 per kg. The state government would bear the expenses up to Rs 10 per kg to supply at this rate.

Revenue Collections
Reddy directed the revenue earning departments to improve their financial position. The total revenue collected till December stood at Rs 33,410.4 crore, 93.6 per cent of the target of Rs 35,694.78 crore. The officials said there was a shortfall of Rs 2,284.00 crore in the collection of taxes.