BHUBANESWAR: As kharif paddy procurement is expected to start from November 22 this year, the state government has directed the Cooperation Department to take measures for the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) in all mandis on a priority basis to ensure transparency during the purchase of paddy under price support system.
The directive came in after a recommendation of the departmentally related standing committee on Cooperation for the installation of CCTVs at all paddy purchase centres.
“Necessary provisions shall be taken to install the CCTV cameras on a priority basis in at least four prominent points in all the PPCs before the coming kharif paddy procurement season,” said an office order of the department.
Accordingly, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) has instructed the district officials of the department to ensure that the instruction of the government is adhered to to ensure smooth procurement operations in all the mandis of PACS and LAMPS approved by the respective district administration.
Even as the district-level paddy procurement committees of Bargarh and Sambalpur have decided to start purchasing paddy under a decentralised procurement system by paying minimum support prices to the farmers from the last week of this month, only a handful of PACS have installed CCTV cameras.
Reports coming from the two major paddy-producing districts said CCTV cameras installed in some major mandis are lying defunct while others are yet to have the facility. There are over 100 mandis under Bargarh, Attabira and Padmapur regulated market committees (RMCs) in Bargarh district. But many mandis do not have CCTV surveillance causing concern among farmers, said former MLA Pradeep Purohit.
He said CCTV cameras are deliberately not installed to avoid surveillance as the PACS staff are hand in glove with rice millers to exploit the farmers bringing surplus paddy to the mandis for sale under minimum support price.
“The standing instruction of the government to all PACS, LAMPS and temporary paddy procurement centres is to provide adequate waterproof storage facilities to store the paddy for at least 3-4 days for procurement. This has been violated every procurement season and farmers have to store their stocks in the open,” Purohit said.