New Delhi, Feb. 14 -- The Congress party's electoral promise to raise the procurement rate of paddy at Rs 2,500 per quintal in Chhattisgarh is set to put an additional burden on the state treasury. This is because the Centre has refused to procure the entire produce from the state citing violation of the prescribed norms as the state has set a higher procurement price.
As per rough estimates, Chhattisgarh, which last week presented a Rs 91,542 crore budget for 2019-20, would have to shell out another Rs 11,600 crore for paddy procurement - but has budgeted only Rs 5,000 crore.
According to a Food Ministry official, the Chhattisgarh government has been informed that the Food Corp of India (FCI) would procure about 2.4 million tonnes of ric...