Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Odisha government has raised objections to the non-lifting of surplus parboiled rice from the State due to restrictions imposed by the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
According to the reports, the state government objects as it would affect paddy procurement from 10 lakh farmers. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi bringing to his notice that Odisha’s paddy procurement could be adversely affected due to such restrictions.
The letter quoted- “Odisha became a Decentralized Procurement (DCP) State in the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2003-04. Since then the State has been undertaking minimum support price operations for procurement of paddy in decentralized mode. Such Decentralized Procurement has improved the outreach of MSP support to paddy growers.”
Further CM Patnaik informed that during the KMS 2020-21, around 14 lakh farmers have sold 77.33 lakh MT of paddy (equivalent to 52.35 MT of rice) to the State Government and MSP dues of about ₹14,444 crores have been transferred to the bank accounts of the farmers within 24 to 48 hours of the purchase of paddy.
He further added that in connection with paddy procurement, it is pertinent to mention here that on August 31, the Centre intimated that for the next KMS no surplus parboiled rice shall be accepted from Odisha by the FCI.
