SAMBALPUR: Discontentment spread among farmers on Friday as the administration failed to start paddy procurement process at market yards on the scheduled day. Many farmers had brought their paddy to the market yards but were left dejected when they saw there was no arrangement in place for procurement.
Farmer leader and advisor of Sambalpur Zilla Krushak Surakhya Sangathan (SZKSS) Ashok Pradhan said, "Though the date for commencement of paddy procurement was finalised by the district administration, it failed to stick to the schedule," he said.
Sources said the delay was due to various factors. Millers have not been tagged to different market yards yet, a process which should have been completed before procurement started. This apart, the mandatory tokens introduced by the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department are yet to be issued to farmers.
Civil Supplies Officer, Sambalpur Ranjan Seth admitted that the millers are yet to be tagged with market yards. Currently, the security money is being deposited by millers and the process would be completed by Friday evening.
Tokens will be generated only after the millers deposit the money. The tokens will be issued from Saturday and hopefully the procurement should start from Monday, he said.
Under the new system, centralised tokens have to be issued 15 days prior to procurement and farmers would be notified via SMS through their registered mobile numbers. The paddy will be procured through 46 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies and Large Area Multi-Purpose Societies besides eight Women SHGs of the district.
As many as 44,825 farmers have registered online to take part in the current kharif paddy procurement besides 51 millers. The Food Supplies department has set a target to procure 2,07,058.82 metric tonne of paddy in the first phase.