BHUBANESWAR: Amid relentless Opposition onslaught on the government over alleged mismanagement in paddy procurement, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Krushna Chandra Patra on Wednesday assured that paddy will be procured from all registered farmers and those with lapsed tokens will be given an additional 15 days to sell their produce.
Stating that district collectors have been empowered to extend the validity of lapsed tokens by 15 days, Patra urged farmers not to panic. “Paddy procurement is going on smoothly. Farmers need not worry,” he said.
The minister said a common control centre has been set up to monitor procurement operations at the mandi level. “Payments are being credited directly to farmers’ bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) within 48 hours of purchase,” he added.
Patra’s assurance comes amid mounting political tension over procurement delays, which disrupted proceedings in the first phase of Budget session of the Assembly.
Meanwhile, sharpening her attack on the BJP government, Opposition chief whip Pramila Mallik accused it of refusing to acknowledge the difficulties faced by farmers. “What is most unfortunate is that the government is not ready to accept the crisis. Farmers waiting at mandis with their paddy stock, those holding tokens, or even those protesting on the streets are being described as fake farmers,” she alleged.
Mallik attributed the situation to administrative inefficiency at the mandi level and claimed that even the chief minister’s directives are not carried out. She said the chief minister is viewing the issue through a “political lens”.
“The millers are not listening to the government instructions and acting as per their whims. The government has no effective control over millers or the field administration,” she alleged, adding that the BJD would continue to fight for farmers’ interests.
BJD MLA Sarada Prasanna Jena said when Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi was in Opposition, he had raised concerns over “katni-chhatni” (deductions) and mandi mismanagement. “We are raising the same issues now, but the government says we are politicising the matter.”
Jena urged the chief minister to gather ground-level information on the actual situation.