Khattar urges Paswan to relax norms for paddy procurement

chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has urged Union minister of state for food and civil supplies Ram Vilas Paswan to give relaxation in the prescribed specifications of paddy and the milled rice, including broken, damaged and discoloured rice.

The request was made in view of adversely affected quality of paddy due to unseasonal and prolonged heavy rains during October in Haryana.

Stating that a letter to this effect was written by the CM to Paswan, an official release said on Saturday that Khattar has stated that the paddy which was procured according to prescribed specifications could not be milled to rice that conforms to the prescribed specifications of 67% yield, 25% broken and 3% damaged and 3% discoloured. Thus, in view of the extenuating and unforeseen circumstances, the specifications need to be relaxed to give effect to the mandate of procurement policy to support farmers through remunerative prices for their produce, he said.

He has requested that the Haryana might be given relaxation in the out-turn ratio from 67% to 64% in case of damaged and discoloured grains, 3:3 to 5:5 in broken 25% to 30% and with 0.5% relaxation in moisture of rice without any value cut.

He stated that without relaxation it would be difficult to for Haryana to get the paddy milled and deliver the entire custom milled rice (CMR) to the Food Corporation of India in Central pool, the release added