Odisha CM Urges PM Not To Delete CMR Stocks Received From Central Pool After Cut Off Date
03 April , Bhubaneswar
Odisha Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to delete Custom Milled Rice (CMR) stocks received after the cut off date from Central Pool.
Such a decision of the Centre would compel Odisha to optout of the DCP operations altogether, Patnaik said in his letter to the Prime Minister Thursday .
He said the procurement of paddy/ rice has increased in Odisha after adoption of the Decentralised Procurement Scheme (DCPS) by the Odisha government since Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2003-04.
Odisha, the Chief Minister said, has become a surplus state in terms of rice since KMS 2007-08. The state is meeting the requirement of rice under various schemes from the DCP Stock and delivering the surplus rice to FCI to meet the requirement of other States.
Even though the procurement of paddy has increased in the State during the past six years, the milling capacity and godown capacity for rice storage has not increased proportionately. Due to these limitations, the acceptance of rice after milling gets delayed beyond the period allowed by Centre for the KMS. For KMS 2011-12 and 2012-13, the cut off date for receiving rice by FCI was fixed by Centre as 31.12.2012 and31.12.2013 respectively.
Patnaik said now, the FCI has been instructed by Centre on January 29 last to delete the rice stocks, received after the cut off date by the State Government from Central Pool accounts.
He said the rice received after 31.12.2012 for KMS2011-12 and after 31.12.2013 for KMS 2012-13 by the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd has been utilised in managing the PDS as part of the Central Pool. The Chief Minister said if this stock is now deleted from the Central Pool, the state government would have to bear the entire cost of the Custom Milled Rice received after the cut off date which would run into hundreds of crores of Rupees.
Stating that there are genuine reasons for not being able to receive the entire CMR within the cut off date, the chief minister appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter and revise the order of deleting the stocks from Central Pool and direct the concerned Ministry to accept them as part of the Central Pool.