BHUBANESWAR: In a shocking revelation, it has come to fore that over 17 lakh plots registered as paddy fields by farmers during 2023 kharif marketing season (KMS) for sale of surplus paddy under minimum support price (MSP) in the state are fictitious. Ponds, forest land, orchards, and land with non-paddy vegetation, even schools and other buildings, have been shown as paddy fields, it has been found.
After receiving reports from field staff from districts that stated a large number of plots were found to be fake upon physical verification, the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department conducted an internal verification of all the registered plots. As registration numbers of around 20.10 lakh plots did not match with the Odisha land records (Bhulekh), the department asked the Odisha Space Application Centre (ORSAC) to conduct a satellite survey of such plots.
“The satellite survey revealed that a staggering number of 17.93 lakh plots are not genuine. What is disturbing is that water bodies like village ponds, river, forest land, gochar land, orchards and plots with non-paddy vegetation are shown as paddy fields. In some cases schools and government establishments were also recorded as agricultural land with paddy crop,” sources in the department said.
In many cases, several members of a family have registered a single plot in their names for sale of paddy under the price support system while in others, farmers have fraudulently registered land belonging to another person in their names, sources added.
The department is learnt to have cancelled all such fictitious registrations and directed field staff for physical verification of the questionable plots. “In cases where online token have been issued for procurement of paddy, they have been withheld and instructions issued to district officials concerned not to purchase paddy from farmers who are put in ‘grey list’ till further orders,” the officer said.
While the paddy procurement season will be over by March 31, 2024, the state government has so far procured 57.74 lakh tonne of paddy from 13.28 lakh registered farmers. The government which has set a target to procure 65 lakh tonne of kharif paddy may not be able to achieve it after cancellation of large number of fake plots.
Reports from districts stated traders from Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are lifting huge quantity of paddy from the state by offering good price to the farmers. While Chhattisgarh traders are buying paddy at Rs 2,100 per quintal, the price offered by those from West Bengal ranges from Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,000 against the MSP of Rs 2,183 per quintal.