New Delhi, Dec 14: Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution and Transport Qamar Ali Akhoon today met secretary Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Government of India to expedite the issue of establishment of a LPG bottle plant at Srinagar and Kargil keeping in view the climatic conditions as well as cost effectiveness in transportation of such supply from Jammu to Srinagar and similarly from Srinagar to Leh via Kargil and backward movement of LPG supply from Leh to Kargil in absence of LPG bottling plant at Srinagar and  Kargil.
 He urged the Central Government to extend support in procurement of food grains  and also the engagement of commission agents (Arthiyas) to facilitate procurement of paddy by the Food Corporation of India till the time the necessary infrastructure of grain mandis are  established in the state by agriculture department.  He said state department shall provide all necessary support to the FCI in this endeavour.
 The Minister was addressing a conference of Food Minister’s, Food Secretaries and Agriculture Secretaries, inaugurated by Union Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Sharad Pawar. Professor K.V. Thomas, Minister of the state for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution was also present on the occasion.
 He said that in the last couple of years due to introduction of high yielding varieties of paddy and improvement inputs and agricultural practices the production of paddy has been showing an upward trend and consequently at the initiative of the state government in a meeting taken by the Chief Minister of J&K state on 11 November, 2011 the FCI agreed to procure a meager quantity of 945 MTs of paddy in the current Kharief marketing season from 9 paddy procurement centers of state Agriculture Department and 4 Food Godowns of FCI. During the current year the production of paddy is estimated to be 2.20 lakh MTs with assessed marketable surplus of 80,000 MTs from 1.142 lakh hectares of land cultivated during Kharief season 2011. However the Food Corporation of India procured of 3850 MTs of paddy during the Kharief marketing season of 2010-2011.
 Akhoon also apprised the ministry the steps taken by the state government to procure paddy through the levy route in addition to direct procurement of paddy by FCI he said that 8576 MTs of levy rice was procured during the previous fiscal in addition to paddy procurement directly by the FCI.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
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