Keonjhar: Protesting distress sale, hundreds of enraged farmers dumped quintals of tomatoes in front of the Telkoi Block Office here in Keonjhar, Friday. Angry farmers alleged the administration negligence and lack of storage facilities were the major cause of distress sale of their produce.
Alleging that their produce was not taken even for Rs 1/kg, angry farmers resorted to the protest claiming that quintals of tomatoes have remained unsold. Moreover, due to lack of cold storage facilities, they were not able to save their produce as the tomatoes were getting rotten.
According to sources, there was a bumper harvest of tomatoes this year. However, the demand has not kept up and lack of proper marketing and storage facilities is leading to such distress sale.
“On the other hand, the agriculture officials hardly visit farmers and enquire on their plight. They do not even bother to provide help in case of losses. For some reason, a farmer manages to approach the officials for help, they are turned away and made to run from pillar to post for several days until he gets fed up and stays in his home,” a tomato farmer Maheswar Naik said.
“We are extremely frustrated over government’s inability to resolve our issues which is why we dumped our produce. They should have set up cold storages as they promised, but nothing has been done yet,” another tomato farmer of Telkoi, Hrushi Mohant said.
Last year also, farmers had staged protest by dumping their produce in front of Keonjhar collector’s office following which the State government had assured that a cold storage will be built in every block of the district. However, nothing has been done yet, farmers alleged.
Another tomato farmer of Ramachandrapur, Trinath Sahu said “I have done a lot of hard work and invested a lot of money in this, but now it has really become difficult and I am not being able to sell my produce. How will I take care of my family in such a situation?”
In Jagatsinghpur as well, farmers are facing similar situation as they have resorted to distress sale of tomatoes due to alleged failure of the district administration to provide safe storage facilities.
When contacted, agriculture officer said that he would put forward the demands of the farmers before the state government.
PNN
