SAMBALPUR: While the procurement of kharif paddy has kick-started in Sambalpur district from Wednesday, the alleged irregularities in token generation from the very beginning has triggered severe resentment among the farmers.
In the ensuing kharif season, paddy will be procured from 59, 921 farmers in the district. On Wednesday, the procurement started in four blocks of Sambalpur including Dhankauda, Jujomura, Maneswar and Rengali. On the first day, 12,700 bags of paddy were procured from 100 farmers and on Thursday 8,152 bags procured from 54 farmers here. The procurement in Kuchinda and Rairakhol block is scheduled to begin from November 27.
While the procurement has started on a slow pace, farmers complained about token irregularities and exploitation by millers at several market yards here on the first day. Reportedly, farmers registered to sell their paddy in three market yards of Maneswar block had to go back without selling their paddy as their tokens were not generated.
Following the negligence and lack of action by the district administration, the farmers under the Zilla Krushak Surakhya Sangathan have written to the district collector to resolve the token related problems. Besides, they have urged him to address two other problems including deduction of paddy per quintal on the pretext of quality besides delay in returning of paddy bags by the rice millers.
Secretary of Zilla Krushak Surakhya Sangathan, Debendra Kumar Padhan said, “Though the date of paddy procurement was changed from November 15 to November 22, till now majority of the farmers who have already harvested their crops have not received their tokens for procurement. They are now worried about the storage of the harvested paddy.”
On the other hand, there is also no end to exploitation of the rice millers, who are deducting around 4-5 kgs of paddy on every quintal, he alleged adding, though the farmers have been packing the paddy bags on their own which are being unloaded at rice mills soon after the procurement, the rice millers are either not returning the paddy bags on time or later returning it in a very unusable condition, he added.
“It is unfortunate that, even though these problems have been recurring every year since last 3-4 years, neither the administration nor the state government is concerned about it. We have given an ultimatum of 72 hours to the district administration to address our issues, failing which we will be forced to launch agitation,” Padhan warned.