Plan to move foodgrain from surplus states soon

Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution System KV Thomas today said his ministry would soon come out with a national foodgrain movement plan to overcome storage constraints faced by states. The plan will also be aimed at increasing storage capacity.

The announcement comes in the wake of a fall in the open market price for paddy way below the minimum support price (MSP) in Andhra Pradesh. Traders and millers are unwilling to lift the rabi crop as government and private godowns are still stocked with previous arrivals, leading to the decline in prices. Farmers in paddy growing districts like Guntur and Krishna had even resorted to agitations by sometimes burning the produce on the roads as they were receiving just Rs 750 per quintal of paddy against the MSP of Rs 1,030.

With farmers unrest becoming a political issue, the state government announced several measures, including opening of government procurement centres across AP and lifting of restrictions on interstate movement of rice.

Thomas, who was here for a coordinated action in this regard, held discussions with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

Speaking to the media, he said a special group comprising his ministry, state government and Railways would be formed to ensure availability of adequate number of rakes to transport paddy from AP to different locations. The state government has been advised to lift the PDS rice meant for both BPL (below poverty line) and APL (above poverty line) families from FCI godowns to create storage capacity for new arrivals.

According to him, the Centre has sanctioned creation of 516,000 tonne additional storage capacity under private and government sectors in AP.

The minister also said a positive decision would be taken on the state government's request for increase in MSP for paddy and the matter would be referred to the Empowered Group of Ministers. On the state government's request for lifting the ban on rice exports, he said the ministry had to consider all the angles before taking a view. AP has also sought about 300 rail rakes to ship rice out from the state.

The AP government has attributed the present crisis to the increase in paddy production in the state. Total production of rice in AP during 2010-11, both rabi and kharif , is expected to be about 14 million tonne, an increase of 3.2 million tonnes over previous year. The government procures 75 per cent of the total output from millers under levy rules allowing the rest to be sold in the open market. Ban on exports combined with restrictions on interstate movement of rice is said to have aggravated the issue.

Addressing a separate media conference, state civil supplies minister D Sridhar Babu said the chief minister had also requested the Centre to increase the MSP for paddy by at least Rs 200 besides sanctioning 2.5 million tonne more storage capacity to the state.