Hyderabad, May 21:Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram during his visit to New Delhi.Later talking to media at AP Bhavan, Mr Reddy said there is a quantum of jump in the production of rice during Rabi in 2010-11 reaching 65.62 lakh MT against last year’s production of 48.82 lakh MTs. An official release here said during the entire Kharif Marketing Season (both Kharif and Rabi), the production of rice during the current year is 140.65 lakh MT against 108.35 MT last year. The paddy arrivals from Rabi crop had already started, the release said, adding, in spite of opening paddy purchase centres by the Government agencies for undertaking MSP operations, traditionally in Andhra Pradesh, maximum quantity of paddy is mopped up by the rice millers at MSP and above for delivery of rice under levy and utilisation of levy free rice.The Chief Minister further said he has explained the Prime Minister about the godown space constraint and the FCI is not in a position to accept the levy rice as offered by the rice millers in some major rice procuring districts. Due to this, the millers were holding the rice stocks in their godowns and were not in a position to make paddy purchases briskly.This was having an adverse effect on the paddy prices and the farmers were not able to dispose of their paddy at MSP, Mr Reddy added.He also said he had brought to the notice of the Prime Minister, the export of boiled rice which is not consumed within the State was permitted to be exported so that the space occupied with this rice in the rice mills is cleared and the millers would be able to purchase paddy briskly for further milling and discharging the levy obligation. The release said some surplus raw rice is also available with the rice millers which is not finding market in other states due to adequacy.Therefore he requested the Prime Minister to consider export of 15 lakh MTs of boiled rice and 10 lakh MTs of non-basmati raw rice from Andhra Pradesh to other countries through normal trade channels so that the rice millers could liquidate the stocks in their godowns and start brisk purchases of paddy from the farmers at MSP and above.also requested the Prime Minister to enhance the MSP by Rs 200 for paddy.The Chief Minister once again requested the Prime Minister to declare Indirasagar Polavaram Project and Pranahitha-Chevella Project Irrigation Projects as National Projects. He also said the Polavaram Project aims to provide fresh irrigation to 7.2 lakh acres besides stabilising 23 lakh acres of ayacut existing in Krishna & Godavari Deltas and producing power of 960 MWs. It envisages diversion of 80 TMC of water from Godavari to Krishna river in conformity with the Godavari Tribunal Award. Out of this, 35 TMC of water will be made available to the Karnataka and Maharashtra States, while the remaining 45 TMC will be used for benefiting drought-affected areas in Rayalaseema and Telangana regions.Besides this, Orissa and Chattisgarh can also draw 5 TMC and 1.5 TMC of water from the Polavaram reservoir for irrigation purpose ,The Chief Minister brought to the notice of Mr Chidamabaram about the four natural calamities that occurred in 2010 and requested to treat the four calamities as national calamity and to sanction Rs 1744 Crores from NDRF.He also requested to expedite the proposed amendments to the 14(f) clause.The Home Minister assured to convene a joint meeting of the ministries concerned, the release said.
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