Jajpur, June 8: Even as the state government plans to enact laws for the benefits of sharecroppers, office bearers of a service credit cooperative society allegedly siphoned off lakhs of rupees by enlisting the land of other people in the names of their family members showing them as share-holders
The matter came to the fore after the joint registrar of cooperative societies (credit), in a letter (9158,dated-6.06,2017), directed the assistant registrar of cooperative societies (ARCS) of Jajpur circle to probe charges against the office bearers of Bondalo services cooperative society in the district.
The order has triggered panic among the president, secretary and assistant secretary of the society. The ARCS started a probe into the charges on receiving the order from the joint registrar.
According to the complaint by a villager of Bondalo panchayat, the concerned office bearers have deliberately shown land of others against select people during digitization of farmer registrations and shown them as share croppers.
As a result, the office bearers have managed to siphon off lakhs of rupees towards money earned from paddy sold in mandis and insurance benefits besides other sops available from the state government. This is not an isolated case in Bondalo panchayat but has taken place in all 10 blocks of the district, the complainant has alleged.
The complainant alleged that land of others has been shown as share croppers in the farm registration status of Mukunda Deba Pati, Nirupama Pati, Hemalata Pati, Balaram Mohapatra and Girija Prasad Mohapatra including 50 others in the panchayat in a clear breach of norms.
Sources said, over 26,345 farmers registered their names to sell their harvested paddy during last kharip. The district administration decided to procure 7, 35,290 quintals of paddy through 122 primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) in the district.
However, it could manage to procure only 7, 06, 269.12 quintals through 116 PACSs in the district. Meanwhile, paddy procurement for the kharip season has ended by April 30 while Rs 54, 41,388 is yet to be paid to farmers as 84 accounts of farmers stand rejected.
Similarly, the cooperative society is yet to make payments in 24 accounts of farmers while paddy worth Rs 5, 60,688 is lying unsold in the mandis by June 2. This has happened due to the negligence of department officials, millers and errors in uploading which find mention in the OMEGA report.
The farmers have held the office bearers of the societies responsible for the fraud who managed to manipulate and usurp benefits available under various schemes of the state government. They have demanded a high-level inquiry into the charges to unravel the truth.
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