Minister Uttam Reddy hits out at Harish Rao, rebuts allegations on paddy procurement
HYDERABAD
Minister for Civil Supplies and Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday hit back at former minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader T. Harish Rao on the latter's allegations over paddy procurement and cited official statistics asking him to stop 'daily campaign of falsehoods'.
In a statement, Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy stated that there was a sharp increase in paddy procurement during the current Rabi season. He stated that the government had procured 43.1 lakh tonnes of paddy as on May 12.
The data shared by the Minister revealed that the Telangana government had procured 43.1 lakh metric tonnes (LMTs) of paddy during the ongoing Rabi 2024–25 season, up to May 12. As on the same day last year, the Rabi procurement was 29.88 lakh tonnes and a year before (2022-23) it was only 19.62 lakh tonnes.
The statistics indicated nearly 44% jump over last year's procurement and more than 120% when compared to 2022-23, reflecting the current administration's proactive efforts, the Minister said.
The Minister stated that the Congress government had opened more procurement centres and streamlined operations to benefit farmers directly. Timely procurement had brought relief to paddy cultivators across Telangana as the government was ensuring Minimum Support Price (MSP) and also paying ₹500 bonus per quintal for fine varieties of paddy.
He highlighted the State's record-breaking paddy production in 2024-25 Kharif/Vanakalam season, when 153.5 lakh tonnes of paddy was produced in 66.7 lakh acres, while the ongoing Rabi/Yasangi crop covered 60.14 lakh acres with the yield estimated to be about 129 lakh tonnes — production of over 280 lakh tonnes in a year.
Meanwhile, sources stated that about 61.45% of the planned procurement (70.13 lakh tonnes) was completed so far by opening 8,245 procurement centres. Of the 43.1 lakh tonnes procured so far, 27.75 lakh tonnes was of common varieties and 15.35 lakh tonnes of fine varieties.
The value of paddy procured so far was ₹9,999.36 crore with 6.58 lakh farmers selling their produce. The farmers were made payments of ₹6,671 crore so far, including ₹767 crore paid as bonus to fine varieties.
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