UP govt fixes target of levy rice for Kharif season

Lucknow, Sep 28 (UNI) The Uttar Pradesh government has a fixed the target of procurement of 25 lakh metric tonne of levy rice from the rice mills for the next Kharif year 2007-08.

This decision was taken in a meeting of the state cabinet today which was presided by the Chief Minister Mayawati. State government releases a fixed quantity of rice as levy rice out of the total paddy milled by the private rice mills. The levy rice is utilised for feeding the Public Distribution System(PDS) network, according to an official release.

Like previous years Basmati and Pusa Basmati variety of rice will remain exempted from the levy. Levy rice will be procured both for the Central pool and the state pool, which will be stored in the warehouses of FCI, Central Warehousing Corporation, and UP State Ware Housing Corporation.

The release said that levy rice will be purchased from the private sector rice mills on the tariff to be determined by the Centre from October 1 next till March 31, next year. The limit will be 60 per cent of the total rice produced by the rice mills from the milling of paddy. Like the previous years no official agency of the state government will purchase the levy rice from the traders.

The government has also fixed minimum standards for selecting the rice mills from whom the levy rice will be procured. Levy rice will be procured from only those mills having minimum milling capacity of 0.5 MT per hour along with paddy separator and polisher. The rice mills will also be required to have the valid licence from the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee for qualifying to be the supplier of levy rice for the PDS.

UNI