New Delhi: Former Union Minister and Bihar BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav on Thursday said that he urged Bihar government to extend paddy procurement deadline in the state.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Yadav said, "I met the Food and Supplies Minister of Bihar Bijendra Prasad Yadav on Wednesday and discussed the deadline of paddy procurement. Recently, the Union Food and Public Distribution Department's secretary Sudhanshu Pandey also held telephonic talks and drew attention in terms of extending the date of paddy procurement."
"In Bihar, the date of paddy purchase has been extended from 31 January to 21 February. Food and Supplies Minister Bijendra Yadav informed me about this through telephonic call. After my request, now the government has extended the date for purchasing paddy in the interest of farmers, which will help farmers to sell paddy," he added.
Notably, the deadline for paddy procurement in Bihar has been extended by three weeks in a bid to provide the benefit to as many farmers as possible, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Thursday.
Kumar said there had been requests from a number of farmers bodies for extending the deadline which was originally set at January 31.
Earlier, the Bihar government had increased the limit of paddy procurement from ryots (land-owning farmers) to 250 quintals from the existing 200 quintals per farmer and 100 quintals from the existing 75 quintals per non-ryot in the state.
This year, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for general grade paddy has been fixed at Rs 1,868 per quintal in Bihar while that for A-grade paddy at Rs 1,888 per quintal.
