Bhubaneswar: The State cabinet whic met under the chairmanship of chief minister Naveen Patnaik Friday took eight important decisions relating to the departments of General Administration & Public Grievance, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Home, and Steel & Mines.


Informing people about the cabinet decisions, chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said that the major decisions included approval of food and paddy procurement policy for Kahrif Marketing Season ( KMS) 2022-23. Cabinet also resolved for merger of Odisha Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (OMECL) and Odisha Mining Corporation. The restructuring of Odisha Secretariat Service Cadre, Odisha Secretariat Executive Asst/PA/PS cadre, amendment of Odisha civil services Rules along with combined graduate level recruitment examination for State cadre Group-B and Group-C service Rules resolved in the cabinet today were like Puja Bheti to the government employees including the aspiring youths for government service.

Food and Procurement Policy for Kharif Marketing Season 2022-23.:

Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2022-23 will commence from 1 st October, 2022 and conclude on 30th September, 2023. State Government will procure paddy during Kharif and Rabi seasons separately within the KMS. Paddy will be procured from registered farmers by payment of
Minimum Support Price (MSP). Paddy will be milled into rice by Custom
Millers appointed for the purpose. The rice so obtained will be utilised in State’s Public Distribution System (PDS) to meet requirements under National Food Security Act, State Food Security Scheme & Other Welfare Schemes and the surplus rice will be delivered to the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The surplus rice is evacuated by FCI to deficit States.
Hon’ble Cabinet has approved the Food and Procurement Policy for KMS 2022-23 to regulate all aspects of paddy and rice procurement. The main features of the approved policy are as follow:
Target
A tentative target of 48 lakh Metric Tonne (LMT) in terms of rice has been fixed for KMS 2022-23. In terms of paddy this comes to around 71 LMT. For Kharif, the tentative target for procurement of paddy would be 57 lakh MT & for Rabi 14 lakh MT. There is no bar for procurement of any higher quantum if more paddy comes to mandies from registered farmers.
Hon’ble Minister, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare has been authorized to revise this target if the need so arises.
In KMS 2021-22 paddy to the tune of 71.03 LMT was procured (both Kharif and Rabi included). In terms of rice it comes to 48.08
LMT.
Procurement Period
Paddy (Kharif Crop) will be procured in the State during the period from November, 2022 to March, 2023 and Paddy (Rabi Crop) from May to June, 2023. Districts will schedule their procurement periods within these broad timelines.
Farmer Registration
Paddy will be procured from farmers who are registered in the online portal of FS & CW Department.
Aadhaar shall be only ID proof for a registered farmer to sell paddy to Government. Sale of paddy is subject to Aadhaar based biometric identification.