New Delhi: BJD Rajya Sabha MP Dr. Sasmit Patra today urged Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal to ask Food Corporation of India (FCI) to lift surplus parboiled rice from Odisha.
Raising the issue during the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha , the BJD MP said that it is the duty of the Centre to lift surplus parboiled rice from Odisha.
Dr. Patra asked Union Minister Piyush Goyal to ask FCI to lift surplus parboiled rice from Odisha, otherwise the farmers of the State would be greatly affected.
He also cited that earlier the Union Minister had agreed to help when the BJD delegation had met him over the issue. But the FCI again deciding not to lift surplus parboiled rice from Odisha would greatly affect the farmers of the State, the BJD MP told the House.
Earlier in October this year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for issuing a direction to DFPD (Department of Food and Public Distribution) to lift the surplus parboiled rice from Odisha for the next Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22.
Odisha is primarily a parboiled rice consuming State and, historically, therefore, Odisha’s rice milling industry overwhelmingly produces parboiled rice. The State is therefore not in a position to face the situation arising due to a paradigm shift in surplus rice delivery profile imposed on the State by DFPD.
Non- lifting of the above quantity of surplus parboiled rice from the State due to the restrictions imposed by DFPD has the potential of severely affecting the State’s paddy procurement operations. This will affect about 10 lakh farmers and put them in serious trouble especially during this Covid pandemic situation, Naveen had said.