KARIMNAGAR: The Government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy this kharif season from Rs. 570 per quintal of the common variety to Rs. 620 per quintal and from Rs. 600 to Rs. 650 per quintal for grade `A' variety.

Disclosing this to newsmen here on Thursday, Collector M.V. Satyanarayana said that during this kharif, farmers in the district were expecting a bumper crop of over 7.5 lakh tonnes. The paddy cultivation had increased due to incessant rain and filling of all irrigation sources.

Maize procurement

He also said that they expecting a production of over 6.75 lakh tonnes of paddy during the ensuing rabi.

Following the success of maize procurement by women's self-help groups during the last kharif, the State Government had decided to decentralise the procurement of paddy too from the farmers from their doorsteps in villages with the help of women's SHGs.

He said that they were chalking out strategies for the procurement of paddy by women SHG members by imparting special training to them.

The Collector said that several people from the district were languishing in jails in Gulf nations following their over-stay and migration on visiting visas.

He said that Union Government had taken steps to bring them back to their native district with the help of embassies.

Migration

Stating that about 1.5 lakh people from the district had migrated to the Gulf countries, Mr. Satyanarayana said they were taking steps to streamline the immigration process by providing proper guidance to the people on employment opportunities in the Gulf countries.

He also said that they were according priority for providing employment to the unemployed youth by imparting special training on various trades with the help of DRDA. He said that they had provided employment to over 1,000 youth as private security guards.

Asked about reports of alleged encroachment of Government lands on the outskirts of Karimnagar town, he said that the Joint Collector was conducting an inquiry into the matter and they had issued a charge memo to the MRO and transferred the Revenue Inspector to an interior village. DRDA Project Director T. Chiranjeevulu and DWMA Project Director A. Srinivas were also present.

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