The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Incentive bonus sought for paddy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 10, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Incentive bonus sought for paddy

Special Correspondent

Food Minister E.V. Velu meets Sharad Pawar to press the demand

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Government has urged the Centre to announce an incentive bonus of Rs. 50 a quintal for paddy over and above the minimum support price the Union Government has fixed for kharif marketing season 2007-08.

Food Minister E.V. Velu met Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum requesting that incentive bonus be sanctioned to paddy farmers.

The Centre had recently announced a minimum support price of Rs. 645 a quintal for the common variety of paddy and Rs 675 for grade “A” variety, an increase of Rs 25 compared with the previous season. For wheat, the Government fixed Rs. 850 per quintal, including an incentive bonus of Rs. 100, against Rs. 700 announced during the previous season.

As paddy farmers wanted the State Government to bring to the Centre’s notice the huge difference in the prices of paddy and wheat and persuade it to announce the incentive bonus for paddy too, the Chief Minister sent a delegation led by the Food Minister.

Mr. Velu requested Mr. Pawar to allot 40,000-50,000 tonnes of raw rice a month, or move at least 5 lakh tonnes of paddy from Chhattisgarh, to meet the requirements of cardholders during the coming festival season. He also requested the Centre to allot 10,000 tonnes of wheat, at the open market rate, to Tamil Nadu for conversion into “rava,” “maida” and “atta” for being supplied through Public Distribution System shops. This was necessary to control the open market prices of these commodities, he said.

A senior official of the Food Department told The Hindu that though the Government had adequate rice stock to meet the overall demand of cardholders, there was heavy demand for raw rice. The demand was seasonal, he said. Once the kuruvai procurement began, the State would get adequate quantity of raw rice.

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