Overview
- Officials set a 10‑day accelerated procurement campaign after reporting that procurement centres had received 58.79 LMT of paddy by May 23, of which 50.01 LMT was purchased and about 8.78 LMT remained unprocured.
- The state lowered its earlier 90 LMT target to 70–75 LMT and deployed 8,575 procurement centres, thousands of vehicles and roughly 20–21 crore gunny bags while saying about Rs 8,749–8,750 crore has been released in MSP payments so far.
- Farmers have faced long waits, shortages of loaders, tarpaulins and transport, and local protests have forced political parties to stage yard visits and a BJP bus yatra to press for faster purchases.
- Opposition leaders allege deliberate mismanagement and payments irregularities, former ministers have called for vigilance probes into contract awards, and reports that several farmers fell ill or died at drying yards remain under dispute or investigation.
- What to watch next: officials have set a daily 3 LMT lifting target for the drive and say pending stocks will be cleared within days, while the speed of payments, any formal probes into procurement contracts, and further protests will determine whether farmer losses are avoided.