WB govt aims to procure 52 lakh MT of paddy by September

Aiming to procure 52 lakh MT of paddy by September, the West Bengal government has decided to remove the individual upper limit of paddy sale for farmers.
That farmers would be able to sell paddy as per his requirement was decided at a recent meeting presided over by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee which was attended by Food and Supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick, Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee and Advisor (Agriculture) to the CM Pradip Kumar Majumder, a senior government official told PTI.
Earlier farmers were able to sell 90 quintal of paddy in a year but as per the new decision there will be no limit on the sale of paddy by farmers, the official said.

A close look at the statistics on paddy sales at different government-run sale counters was conducted before such a decision was taken, he said.
With the new decision, a farmer, who was earning Rs 1470 for a quintal of paddy, would now be getting Rs 20 more per quintal as an incentive from the state government.
The state government, besides, using the 320 paddy procuring centres, has also decided to utilise the 550 Samabay Samities for the purpose, the official stated.

As per the new rules, one farmer would require to carry his bank passbook to the paddy procuring centres in order to sell his produce.

"It's been assumed that farmers will be benefited by the new rules," the officer said.
So far, the state government has procured six lakh MT of paddy out of the target of procuring 52 lakh MT by September.
In fact, advertisements regarding the government's decision would be out by this week, the official said.
According to another source in the Food and Supplies
department, the government would provide tabs to various self help groups for helping them in procuring paddy.
"This is to help them run their work more smoothly. So the government has decided to provide each Self Help Group with a tab," he said.

With one SHG assigned to take care of three mouzas, around 10,000 self help groups would be engaged in the process of procuring paddy.
"One person from the Group will collect all the paddies from the mouza and then inform the department which will take the paddy from them. The HGs will be given around Rs 32 per quintal as commission," the officer said.