Bhubaneswar, Jan 19 (Reporter) The Union Food and Public Distribution Department has given approval for lifting 10 lakh MT of fortified parboiled rice by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) from Odisha. Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal in a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the department has accorded approval of procuring 10 lakh MT parboiled rice by FCI from Odisha during the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2023-24. Pradhan had recently written to Goyal to lift an additional parboiled rice from Odisha in the larger interest of the farmers. In his letter, Pradhan said Odisha is the fourth-largest paddy-producing state in the country and stated that due to bumper harvest an estimated 79 Lakh MT rice will be collected in the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2023-24 in Odisha. He had stated that adequate parboiled rice would be left which needs to be evacuated by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and requested Goyal to procure 10 lakh MT parboiled rice in the interest of the state and the farmers...////...