BHUPALPALLY: Farmers protested in front of the Jayashankar Bhupalpally Collector’s office on Monday over the delay in paddy procurement by Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) centres and urged officials to take action against rice millers who were tampering with weights.
The farmers claimed that they were in a tight spot as rice mill owners were refusing to buy paddy unless 2 kg-5 kg was removed from each quintal as wastage. They alleged that officials of IKP centres and rice mill owners were looting them.“Also, if we question the IKP officials, they were delaying the procurement,” farmers said. The farmers were worried that if this continued, another bout of untimely rain would destroy their paddy produce.
B Srinivas, a farmer from the district, said they were facing a two-fold loss -- first, at procurement centres and second at rice mills. There was also loss in quality and weight due to humidity, he said. Srinivas said farmers were losing 2 kg-3 kg for every 40 kg bag of paddy, and 4 kg-5 kg from every quintal.
Eight climb cell tower, seek help from officials
Rajanna-Sircilla: Eight distressed farmers climbed a cell tower at Peddalingapur village in Rajanna-Sircilla district on Monday. Two days ago, farmers had staged a protest but that did not yield any result. So on Monday, they decided to hold a novel protest to draw the attention of officials to their problems. Nearly 200 paddy farmers gathered in the village to expose the rice millers, who had been exploiting them. They continued their protest for almost one hour. Farmers alleged that rice millers had been deducting around 8 kg from every quintal of rice on the pretext of wastage. District Supplies Officer reached the spot and requested the farmers to get down from the tower, and, assured them that officials would talk to rice millers and sort out the issue amicably.