Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has demanded that the paddy affected due to unseasonal rains in the state be procured at MSP price of Rs 1550 per quintal after relaxation of the FAQ norms.
Protesting the Centre’s decision to fix the procurement price of affected paddy at Rs 1410 per quintal, the state food supply and consumer affairs secretary Vir Vikram Yadav has written to his counterpart at the Centre that the government of India should declare the relaxation without value cut. The paddy with relaxed specification to be purchased at MSP at Rs 1550 per quintal, the principal secretary has said pointing out that the paddy with relaxed specification was procured without value cut and at the MSP during the Kharif Marketing Season 2010-11 for the benefit of the farmers.
The state government has written the Centre for relaxation of specification of paddy for procurement during the 2017-18 KMS in view of the unseasonal rains affecting paddy crop in as many as 19 of the 30 districts in the state. The Centre, however, has relaxed the specification for procurement only in 14 districts(Khorda, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Ganjam) . The districts of Boudh, Puri, Cuttack and Jajpur were not covered under the relaxation norms.
Not only that the relaxation has been declared with full value cut only by enhancing the parameters of damaged, discoloured, sprouted and weevilled grains up to 12% against the existing limit of 5%. Hence the paddy with relaxed norms will be procured at Rs1410 per quintal.
