Uttam Kumar Reddy Urges Centre To Clear Dues
- Uttam Kumar Reddy seeks higher paddy procurement and timely CMR support
- Telangana pushes for storage expansion and faster foodgrain movement
Hyderabad: Uttam Kumar Reddy Urges Centre to Clear Dues as he placed a detailed list of demands before the Union Government during Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Prahlad Joshi’s visit to Nalgonda on Thursday. Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the State needed urgent support from the Centre to manage procurement, storage, and distribution during the current crop season.
He welcomed Prahlad Joshi to Nalgonda and recalled his association with him since their time together in Parliament. He said Joshi had always offered a patient hearing to Telangana’s concerns. He submitted a proposal seeking 10 lakh metric tonnes of additional boiled rice allocation under KMS 2024–25 so that the State could complete its CMR deliveries on time. Meanwhile, he said nearly Rs 1,400 crore remained due to Telangana from earlier procurement seasons and urged the Centre to release the pending funds. He also asked for the release of subsidy claims for 89,000 metric tonnes of rice distributed under PMGKAY, which he said amounted to about Rs 343 crore.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said rice millers were waiting for clarity on timelines. Therefore, he requested the Centre to extend CMR delivery periods by 60 days for Kharif 2024–25 and 120 days for Rabi 2024–25. He also sought additional railway rakes to speed up the evacuation of foodgrains stored in FCI godowns across Telangana. He appealed for 1 lakh metric tonnes of extra storage capacity within the Nalgonda FCI complex. He said Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy supported this request and that the region needed more space to handle large crop volumes.
The Minister spoke about his earlier tenure as a Lok Sabha MP and his long involvement in national food distribution issues. He said many states continued to distribute coarse grains that were not consumed, which led to waste. He contrasted this with Telangana’s “revolutionary approach” of providing 6 kg of fine-quality rice per person every month to 3.31 crore beneficiaries. He said the Congress Government raised food security standards without compromising on quality.
He said Telangana had become India’s number-one paddy-producing and procuring state. This year, the kharif crop produced nearly 150 lakh metric tonnes of paddy. Of this, the Government was procuring 80 lakh metric tonnes at a cost of Rs 29,000 crore. He said no state in the history of independent India had procured paddy at this scale. He added that the Government opened 8,800 procurement centres to ensure no farmer faced distress sale.
In his remarks, he said Telangana was working with a true federal spirit. “Whenever the Chief Minister and I met you in Delhi during the last 20 months, you have always received us with patience and consideration,” he told Prahlad Joshi. He thanked the Union Minister and asked the audience to acknowledge his support. He expressed confidence that the Centre would respond positively to the pending requests. He said the expansion of infrastructure in districts like Nalgonda would help farmers, ration card holders and the civil supplies network.
He said the visit of Prahlad Joshi would strengthen cooperation between the Centre and the State. He reiterated his appeal for more rice allocation, release of dues, extension of CMR timelines, more railway rakes, and expansion of FCI storage capacity. He described these demands as essential for protecting Telangana’s farmers and improving the public distribution system.
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