New Delhi, April 25: Total food production in 2018-19 will be 283.7 million tonnes, including 113 million tonnes of rice, Union Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday.

Owing to signs of normal and favourable monsoon, foodgrain production during the kharif season is expected to be 140.2 million tonnes while it would be about 142.5 million tonnes during the rabi season as per the tentative targets, Agriculture Commissioner S.K. Malhotra said at the Kharif Conference here.

Paddy production would be around 113 million tonnes in 2018-19 including 98 tonnes during Kharif season. The ministry has targeted 100 million tonnes of wheat production this year.

As per the targets, pulses production is expected to be 24 million tonnes while oilseeds production would be 36 million tonnes.

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Raisen (MP), Nov 24: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a truck driver while his two associates restrained the teenager’s male friend in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district, an official said on Sunday.

Police have arrested two persons, including the truck driver, in connection with the alleged crime committed in Siyarmau forest on Silwani-Sagar Road, some 110 km from the district headquarters, on Saturday evening, he said.

The teenager and her 21-year-old male friend were returning after visiting the Vandevi temple in the area when they parked their two-wheeler and entered the forest, said Silwani’s Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anil Maurya.

At the same time, a truck broke down following which its driver, later identified as Sanju Adivasi (21), and his two friends also went inside the forest, where they spotted the girl and her friend.

The trio thrashed the young man and snatched the key of his motorcycle, he said, citing the FIR.

The driver took the girl deep inside the forest and allegedly raped her, while his associates restrained her friend, the official said.

After the three accused left, the girl and the youth walked to the road and alerted some policemen who were passing by.

Police registered a case against Sanju Adivasi and his associates Shivnarayan Advasi and Akshay Ahirwar under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 64 (rape), 70-1 (gang rape) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.

Sanju and Shivnarayan have been arrested, while Ahirwar is on the run, the official said.