The Government Friday ordered constitution of committees to facilitate procurement of paddy from the farmers in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts at minimum support price.In this connection, the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Dr Pawan Kotwal asked the Deputy Commissioners of the three districts to constitute committees comprising members from Agriculture, Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Food Corporation of India to initiate the process of paddy procurement as per past practices and to ensure minimum support price to the farmers for their yield.He was chairing a meeting to discuss the modalities for procurement of paddy from the farmers, besides addressing the issues of the mill owners who process the coarse paddy.
He further asked Deputy Commissioners to identify mill owners in their respective districts for milling and processing coarse paddy for FCI while maintaining quantity and quality norms of milled rice for transfer to CAPD department.The Divisional commissioner also issued directions to Agriculture department for creating awareness among farmers regarding the FCI norms for the procurement of paddy. He said the quality of the yield would fetch farmers minimum support price for their yield.The Divisional Commissioner further passed directions to agriculture department to look into the possibility of setting up permanent mandies in the identified areas of high crop production for the convenience of farmers. “Such facilities would minimize the carriage charges and greatly benefit the farmers” he added.The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Samba, Sheetal Nanda, Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh, Deputy Commissioner Kathua, Ramesh Kumar, Director FCS&CA, G S Chib, Director Agriculture, A K Malhotra, Additional Commissioner Rehana Batul and General Manager FCI, J&K Kishore Kumar and others.