BERHAMPUR: While paddy procurement for kharif season is set to start within a few days in Rayagada district, several instances of irregularities in registration of farmlands have come to the fore in satellite surveys conducted by the government.
This year, during the survey at least 15,699 plots which were falsely registered as cultivated land, were detected in the district. Official records indicate the highest 3,600 suspicious plots were detected in Kalyansingpur followed by 3,300 in Ramanaguda block.
An official on condition of anonymity said, the problem was pointed out long back but no action was taken against fake farmers. As the move is aimed at weeding out fake registrations, such practice cause significant financial losses to the administration.
This year out of 21,146 farmers who have registered their names for the procurement process, 358 were found to be fake and their names deleted from the list. But no action was taken against them despite the fact that they applied for registration showing barren or homestead land as farmland. However, the reality would emerge after the survey by Odisha paddy land survey agency, said the official.
The procurement process is also plagued with problems faced by farmers some of whom are yet to get remuneration for their produce even after a year. A farmer T Tirumala of Baghasala village in Gunupur block said he sold 30.4 quintal of paddy last year with his token number 1542975 but has not received his payment till date. Tirumala said he approached procurement authorities at Gunupur and Rayagada and as the effort went in vain he placed his complaint at the collector’s grievance in July this year. It too did not work.
Dejected by the administration’s apathy Tirumala this year did not enrol for the kharif procurement. Rayagada MLA Kadraka Appala Swamy drew the attention of the patwari concerned to the matter and described the incident as most unfortunate. He said farmers commit suicide owing to such apathy of officials and questioned whether the administration will pay Tirumala’s dues with interest.
Sources said the district administration to hide its fault, took the plea that as the bank account of Tirumala was opened under Jan Dhan Yojana, the money could not reach him.The irony is that the scheme was started in 2014 and Tirumala had opened his account with SBI back in 2010.