Raigad: Rice millers in Chhattisgarh have begun lifting rice from procurement centres. After fine milling and processing the coarse grains, the millers have been depositing the polished rice to the central nodal agency, the Food Corporation of India. The central agency along with other state agencies undertakes procurement of wheat and paddy under a price support scheme.
This development in paddy milling stems from a meeting of officers from various districts. On Monday, millers from Raigad district began picking up paddy. Operators at the Akansha Rice Mill are documented to have deposited 290 quintals of rice at FCI Raigad.
Millers across the state welcomed CMs decision of hiking the farmer returns per gunny bag to Rs 25 alongside providing an incentive of Rs 120 per quintal to custom millers. In Kharif season, 2021 the Centre had issued instructions to procure 100 per cent (61.65 lakh metric tonne) of arwa rice under the central pool from Chhattisgarh.
Ahead of the winter session for this year, Baghel had taken to his Twitter urging all Rajya Sabha Members and Lok Sabha Members of State, to raise the issues of farmers and Usna mill workers from Chhattisgarh. As per the Central Decentralized Procurement scheme and the MoU which mentioned procurement of Arwa rice only has severely impacted the livelihoods of 416 usna rice millers.