'Rice procured by DMK Govt. is of good quality'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JUNE 2. Contrary to the charge made by the Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha, over the quality of 15 lakh tonnes of rice stock left by the previous Government, officials explain that the majority of the stock which was procured in the recent samba season has a longer shelf life.

The government, in the last kuruvai and samba season alone, purchased about 26 lakh tonnes of paddy from the delta farmers.

While it procured 5.5 lakh tonnes of paddy in kuruvai, it made a record procurement of about 20 lakh tonnes in the recently concluded samba season.

Though parallel procurement was in vogue in the delta districts in the last two seasons, not many traders participated, forcing the State owned Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation to purchase the bulk of the paddy from the farmers.

The price offered by the Government was also better than the open market price, which, they said, helped the farmers get a reasonable price for their produce.

The officials said while 90 per cent of the kuruvai paddy was converted into rice and distributed through the PDS, hulling of samba paddy stock was going on in full-swing.

``As the quality of paddy is good, the rice will not get spoilt easily and the quality will remain the same for at least for the next two years.''

``But for the Government's direct purchase, many farmers would have resorted to distress sale of paddy'', officials say, citing the example of Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, where there were complaints of distress sale by farmers.

In those States, paddy was purchased by the Food Corporation of India from millers and not from farmers. Only in Tamil Nadu, paddy was procured directly from farmers without middlemen intervention.

What the previous government had failed to do was that, it did not remove curbs on inter-State movement of paddy when the stock started mounting.

If only it had removed the curbs, more traders would have participated in the procurement operation, which in turn would fetch the farmers better price, they added.

Meanwhile the former food Minister, Mr. K.N. Nehru denied the charge of the Chief Minister that the rice stock left by the DMK Government was of poor quality.

Every month about two lakh tonnes of rice was being distributed to ration cardholders through PDS. So far no major complaint had been received about the quality. The Chief Minister's charge, he said, was `politically' motivated.

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