Lucknow Sep 18 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Paddy Procurement Policy 2018-19 under which the state government has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) for common paddy at Rs 1 750 per quintal from the earlier Rs 1 550 and Rs 1 770 for Grade I paddy.
At a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath it was also decided that the state government would procure 50 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from the farmers. Procurement last year was 43 lakh metric tonne.
Informing about the decision state government spokesman and Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that the government will give recognition to only online purchases.
The state Cabinet has also approved a proposal to double the incentive for millers contractors and farmers and an additional Rs 20 will be given for the sieving cleaning washing and cutting processes. This amount was Rs 10 earlier.
Three thousand paddy procurement centres will also be set up across the state the spokesman said.

--IANS md/nir