Paddy procurement falls short of target in Bihar;blame game on

A shortfall in paddy procurement in Bihar has snowballed into a political controversy with the state government today blaming the Centre for giving "inadequate time" for collecting the targetted 30 lakh tonnes of grain.
"We could procure only 19.5 lakh metric tonne paddy against a target of 30 lakh metric tonne from the farmers during the current Kharif season due to inadequate time given by the Centre for the purpose," state Food and Consumer Protection minister Shayam Rajak told the legislative Assembly while replying to a special debate on paddy procurement.
Normally the Centre gives four months to the states for paddy procurement, but this year Bihar was given time till January 31 last to procure 30 lakh metric tonne, a target which could not be met due to high moisture, he said.

Passing the buck on the Centre for inadequate paddy procurement, Rajak said a narrow window was given to Bihar to procure paddy despite prevalence of high moisture during the months of December and January in the harvested crop, which led to shortfall.
He said the Centre extended the deadline for paddy procurement thrice on requests by the state, but the delay to grant extension disrupted procurement by various agencies like the Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) and State Food Corporation (STF) led to overall procurement of only 19.5 lakh metric tonne against the target of 30 lakh metric tonne.
Charging the Centre with playing politics over paddy procurement issue, Rajak said it granted extension up to April 15, but the letter in this regard arrived only on April 9 by which the state agencies had wound up procurement centres knowing that the window had expired by March 31.

He also criticised the Union Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry for not releasing Rs 2,105 crore to Bihar in lieu of food grains procured from farmers and said the funds would have come handy in procuring paddy during the Kharif season.