Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb Wednesday met Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to demand that 2.5 lakh tonnes rice required for ration shops should be procured from the state itself in order to ensure that farmers get minimum support price fixed by the Centre.
Paswan said the Centre has in-principal agreed to the demand of Tripura government and a team of Food Corporation of India (FCI) will soon visit the state to fix the modalities.
"We send rice to Tripura from states like Haryana and Punjab. We will save transportation cost if the grains are procured from farmers in Tripura only," the food minister told reporters here.
However, the food minister said the state government will have to set up rice mills to convert paddy procured from farmers into rice.
The chief minister thanked Paswan for agreeing to his demand and assured that rice mills would be set up across the state by roping in private players.
Deb said the total rice production in the state is 8.5 lakh tonnes and rice required for the public distribution system (PDS) is 2.5 lakh tonnes annually.
"The Centre spends about Rs 525 crore to provide PDS rice to our state. This money can go directly to our farmers," the CM said.
He pointed out that paddy farmers in Tripura gets only about Rs 10 per kg for their produce even as the central MSP is over Rs 17 per kg.
Deb said this move will help achieve the Centre's objective to double farmers income by 2022.
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