A three-member team of Food Corporation of India (FCI) met Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb in presence of the state Food and Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (F&CS) Minister Manoj Kanti Deb.
The FCI team led by its Executive Director at their headquarters in New Delhi, Rabindar Paul Singh initially met the Chief Secretary and followed by the CM said that they discussed the proposal of the state government for procurement of paddy at minimum support price (MSP) from the farmers of the state directly by the FCI so that farmers are benefitted by it.
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However, Singh expressed that one major hurdle in the process of direct procumbent of paddy from the farmers is the absence of the required number of rice mills and the excess charges demanded by existing mills.
The state government had assured the FCI team to look into the matter so that the cost for milling could be brought down besides a new proposal to get the paddy bought from farmers in the northern part of the state and get it milled from neighboring Silchar in Assam.
Meanwhile, state F&CS Minister Deb viewed that once FCI starts procuring paddy from the farmers directly then they will be largely benefited as at present farmers get only Rs 10 for a kilogram of paddy but at MSP they will get Rs. 7.5 more in every kg and which will add to their profit.
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Moreover, this will also benefits the state by saving Rs 600 crores required for transporting rice from Tripura beside establishment of new rice mills and rice oil mills out of the paddy husk in the state and which will create employment said the state F&CS Minister.
It may be mentioned here that only recently the state CM met with the Union FCS Minister Ram Vilas Paswan at New Delhi and requested him for FCI to start procuring paddy at MSP from Tripura farmers.