The Civil Supplies Corporation (CSC) in the Telangana State had procured approximately 60.5 lakh tonnes of paddy worth Rs 11,414 crore as on Wednesday. The Corporation is preparing to purchase another 20 lakh tonnes of paddy, with a procurement target of 80 lakh tonnes, before the rainy season next month.

Paddy cultivation has been taken up in about 52.76 lakh acres across the state. According to the extent of cultivation, a paddy yield of around 1.29 crore tonnes was expected, where the Civil Supplies Corporation would purchase about 80 lakh tonnes.

The Corporation's chairman, Mareddy Srinivas Reddy, stated that approximately 76% of the paddy was purchased. The 656 procurement centres have been closed after completing the purchases in 12 districts of Nizamabad, Nirmal, Mancherial, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Jagitial, Rajanna-Sircilla, Peddapalli, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Yadadri Bhongir, and Wanaparthy.

Concerning the return of empty gunny bags to the CSC, he said, "Ration dealers do not return empty gunny bags to the CSC following the rules. As against 30 lakh bags to be handed over, they returned only 9.44 lakh bags in March and 7.9 lakh bags in April. We have already increased the price of each gunny bag from Rs 18 to Rs 21. In the wake of increasing paddy yield, there is a huge requirement for gunny bags, "Srinivas Reddy said.

Additional Collectors were instructed to place contractors on a blacklist if they did not provide vehicles for paddy transportation as agreed, and to take steps to select contractors by inviting tenders for higher transparency and efficiency.