The Gazetteers Department

Bhandara district is mainly a paddy producing district and as such rice is the chief commodity for export from the district. The Maharashtra State Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited works as the chief purchasing agent on behalf of the Government of Maharashtra in the district. The leviable agriculturists themselves bring their produce for sale to purchase-centres opened by the Federation in the district. Besides this, the agriculturists are also allowed to transport up to 20 kg of paddy or 15 kg of rice to the market place directly for sale to bona fide consumers in the district. The produce purchased by the Federation from the agriculturists is taken over by the Government to supply it to other districts in the State as per demand.

The object of the Government of Maharashtra is to secure the maintenance of supplies of grains to the consumers, bring about their equitable distribution and make them available at reasonable prices. With this view the Government of Maharashtra has introduced the system of monopoly Procurement of paddy, rice and jowar under the order, " The Maharashtra Scheduled Foodgrains (Stocks Declaration and procurement and Disposal, Acquisition, Transport and Price Control) Order, 1966". In order to realise its objective to control production, supply and distribution of essential commodities the Government of Maharashtra has also applied various food control measures in the district.

The Government of Maharashtra has introduced the system of Monopoly Procurement of paddy, rice and jowar since 1965-66 in the district with the view to check the rising spiral of prices. To make it effective the Maharashtra State Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited has been appointed as the chief purchasing agent for Government. The distribution of paddy and rice is entirely handled by Government through this Federation.

For purchasing and milling paddy in the district, the Federation has appointed its purchasing and milling sub-agents. As far as possible and wherever feasible co-operative rice mills are selected for milling of Government paddy. For the purpose of effecting the purchase of paddy, the Federation has a sufficient number of purchase-centres at convenient places in the district. The Government had fixed the purchase prices for the year 1968-69 payable for paddy and rice as under: —

Variety	Paddy	Rice
(1)	(2)	(3)
	Rs.	Rs.
(1) Superfine	72	97.70
(2) Fine	67	91
(3) Medium	62	84.25
(4) Coarse	56	76.15

The purchase price for jowar was fixed as under: —

Variety	Purchase Price (per quintal)
(1)	(2)
	Rs.
(1) Superior (rabi or hybrid)	56
(2) Medium (kharif)	54
(3) Yellow (peelee and other)	49

The quantity and value of paddy and jowar procured during the year 1968-69 are given below: —

Procurement up to 16th October 1969

Variety	Quintals	Value (Rs.)
Paddy	8,26,266	4,95,75,960.00
Rice	5,65,102	5,72,49,849.36
Jowar	749	44.940.00

Fair Price Shops: Almost every village or town has one or more fair price shops except the very small villages in the district. As regards the distribution of foodgrains through these shops, there are at present 1,263 fair price shops in the district. These shops provide the inhabitants with their day-to-day requirements. They deal in rice, wheat, jowar, milo, sugar, gram and gram dal.

Generally the demand for foodgrains in the urban areas remains fairly constant all the year round as its population mainly comprises wage and salary earners. In villages, however, the demand is seasonal because during the harvest time foodgrains are not purchased by the cultivators.

The foodgrains are distributed to the fair price shops through the Tahsildars concerned. The total quantity of foodgrains distributed through these fair price shops during the period from September 1967 to August 1969 is given below: —

FOOD GRAINS DISTRIBUTED THROUGH FAIR PRICE SHOPS IN 1967-68
AND 1968-69.

Year	Variety	Foodgrains (quintals)	Value (Rs.)
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
1967-68	Wheat	76,430	65,34,765.00
	Milo	57,791	33,51,523.50
	Jowar	90,347	55,56,240.50
	Rice	83,322	82,90,539.00
	Kani	1,515	76,507.50
	Gram	2,957	2,30,143.31
	Gram dal	476	62,655.88
1968-69	Wheat	1,26,155	1,07,86,252.50
	Milo	29,125	17,03,812.50
	Jowar	17,099	10,51,532.50
	Rice	69,631	6,93,44,634.50
	Kani	818	41,309.00
	Gram	189	10,818.07
	Gram dal	128	16,868.64

The following statement shows the number of authorised Fair Price Shops in 1967-68 and 1968-69: —

NUMBER OF AUTHORISED FAIR PRICE SHOPS IN THE DISTRICT IN
1967-68 AND 1968-69.

Serial No.	Name of tahsil	Cooperative societies	Village Panchayats	Other organised bodies	Private traders	Total
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
			1967-68
1	Bhandara	33	184	36	122	375
2	Gondia	144	156	4	133	433
3	Sakoli	27	216	14	198	455
			1968-69
1	Bhandara	35	182	36	125	378
2	Gondia	141	150	5	148	444
3	Sakoli	38	210	13	222	488

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