The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Rice levy target 8.94 lakh tonnes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 29, 2007
ePaper

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Rice levy target 8.94 lakh tonnes

Correspondent

Kakinada: The Government has fixed rice levy target for 2007-08 Kharif season as 8.94 lakh tonnes, according to GSRKR Vijayakumar, Joint Collector.

Addressing rice millers, officials of the agriculture and civil supplies departments here, he said every effort should be made to achieve the levy target without any deviation. Of the levy target fixed, he said 7.80 lakh tonnes was raw rice, 1.20 lakh tonnes of boiled rice.

He said that the Government had announced the minimum support price including the Rs. 50 bonus, for quintal of common variety of paddy Rs.695 and for A grade variety paddy Rs.725. If any miller purchases paddy below the minimum support price from farmers, stern action would be initiated against them under 1984 AP rice procurement order, he warned.

Similarly, he said the millers have to give 75 percent of rice towards levy and remaining 25 percent only in the market. He wanted the millers to ensure that the rice bags should bear the printed lable ‘free levy rice’ for selling in the open market. The millers should write in the registers the particulars of the ryots who sold the paddy, their pattadar passbook number. In order to purchase paddy at minimum support price from farmers, he said, 68 paddy purchase centres were being opened. Dwarampudi Bhaskara Reddy, president of the State Rice Millers Association, said the levy targets could be achieved if permission is accorded for export of the existing rice stocks in godowns. The joint collector said the district administration had already sent a report to the Government on the rice stocks piled up in the godowns following the ban on non-Basmati rice exports.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail