Kharif Rice Procurement estimated at 250 to 270 lakh tonnes

New Delhi, Aug 26 (UNI) The procurement of rice during the Kharif Marketing Season 2006-07 is likely to be 250 to 270 lakh tonnes, according to the preliminary estimate at a meeting of state Food Secretaries held here today.

The actual procurement of rice during the Kharif Marketing Season 2005-06 was 276.77 lakh tonnes against an initial estimate of 230.07 lakh tonnes, a government spokesman said.

The meeting was convened to take stock of arrangement and preparedness of state governments for procurement operations of paddy and coarse grains under the Minimum Support Price during the ensuing market season.

The meeting also reviewed the storage and warehousing facilities in states besides availability of packing material.

The spokesman said procurement of rice in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa would cross the previous year's level, though the production in Punjab and Haryana might marginally fall due to shortage of rainfall.

Meanwhile, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution T Nanda Kumar, who presided over the meeting, urged the state governments to strengthen the public distribution system by eliminating bogus ration cards, prevention of diversion of PDS grains to open market and by introducing electronic tracking system of trucks carrying foodgrains from FCI godowns to fair price shops.

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