The Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Kumar Deb called on the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs,Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan at KrishiBhawan in New Delhitoday. In the meeting,theChief Minister of Tripura, Shri Biplab Kumar Deb requested that Food Corporation of India(FCI) should take up procurement of paddy and other food grains in the state of Tripura for greater interest of the farmers in the region. It was discussed that FCI will explore feasibility of procurement within North Tripura and Unokoti Districts (adjacent to Assam) in the 1st phase and get the paddy milled from rice mills located at neighbouring Silchar/Karimganj districts of Assam, as per policy of the Government of India. The Chief Minister requested that a special policy should be made for the North-East state of Tripura for procurement by FCI. Shri Ram Vilas Paswan assured the Chief Minister that the matter would be referred to the Union Cabinet for a special policy for the state of Tripura.Existing induction of rice by FCI from outsideTripura involves huge transportation and handling costs and in case of local procurement, there will be considerable savings. Annual production of Paddy in the State is around 12 lakh MT. Entire requirement of PDS (2.71 lakh MT) could be met out of the local production instead of induction from outside by the FCI.