Govt to enumerate jobless farm labour in East Godavari

In view of the 'crop holiday' by paddy farmers in East Godavari district, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy today asked the district collector to enumerate the labourers in the affected areas who need alternative employment.

This is in addition to measures aimed at improving the storage capacity and procurement of the produce -- factors which caused the farmers in the 'rice bowl' district to stay away from cultivation in the ongoing kharif season.

According to the officials, works worth Rs 50 crore have been identified to be taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 13 mandals in the district.

The official view is that the intention of the farmers is not 'crop holiday' but a rescheduling of their cropping cycle to avoid the November cyclones. Farmers want to go for early rabi this year, and want early release of water for next kharif, most probably by May 15, 2012, they said.

The chief minister asked them to workout the possibilities well in advance. Among other measures, the government has provided Rs 2,100 crore to the Civil Supplies department for procurement of 2.2 million tonnes of paddy that had been purchased by various agencies including IKP women groups from the farmers to ensure MSP to them. The Centre has enhanced the MSP of paddy to Rs 1,110 for 2011 season.

According to a CMO statement, last year saw a bumper harvest of paddy with about 32 per cent excess production. To cope with this, the state government plans to construct additional godown space for 1.8 million tonnes of grain and together with 1 million tonnes space from the central government agencies, a total of 2.8 million tonnes of godown space would be added to the existing space of 4.3 million tonnes.