BHUBANESWAR: Faced with severe cash crunch, the Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) has requested the State government to refill corpus funds for timely payment to registered seeds growers.
While farmers selling paddy under MSP are getting payment within a week through direct benefit transfer system, seed growing farmers have been waiting for their initial payment for more than two months. As per the agreement with seed growing farmers, initial payment of 60 per cent of the seed cost has to be made within seven days of receiving certified seeds.
The second and final payment was to be made within one month of the receipt of report from laboratory and the seeds certifying agency of the government, said director representing farmers in the OSSC Board Ashok Baral.
The government had created two separate corpus funds of Rs 100 crore each in 2015 for ‘pre-positioning’ fertiliser and quality seeds. A corpus of Rs 100 crore was set up for supply of quality seeds through institutional agencies and supplying them to farmers on time. In 2015, the government had allocated `25 crore to the fund while from 2016 onward, the OSSC has been getting an assistance of Rs 60 crore.
Man killed in attack
Bhubaneswar: A man was killed and his wife critically injured after being stabbed by a person near their house in Jharana Sahi under Mancheswar police limits on Wednesday. Accused Sukant Das attacked Chotulal Besra and his wife Kalpana with a sharp weapon when he saw them fighting with his sister and brother-in-law who were their neighbours. On Wednesday night, Chotulal in an inebriated state began creating nuisance in front of his neighbour’s house. When they protested, he misbehaved with them. Seeing this, Sukant attacked Chotulal and Kalpana in a fit of rage.