Bumper harvest: Jupally seeks 25 lakh tons of storage space

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Jupally Krishna Rao on Friday urged Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to provide 25 lakh metric tonnes of space in warehouses to state for storage of food grains.

Talking to media persons here, Mr Krishna Rao said the he had stressed on the need for requirement of additional space in godowns, in view of the bumper harvest in the state this year.

He said the Union Minister has responded favourably to the state requirements and promised to look into these.

Mr Krishna Rao also revealed that he had talked to Mr Pawar about the Minimum Support Price for the food grains and assured the farmers that there was no cause of worry and the state government would procure the crops from them by giving minimum support price for their produce.

He asked farmers not to panic and sell their produce at low price.

Earlier, the Minister emphasized the need to amend certain sections of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 for exercising effective control over the traders who indulge in malpractices and to prevent hoarding and black-marketing.