Post News Network
Bhadrak, Dec 24: Delay in paddy procurement by the administration in this district has provided a golden opportunity to traders of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to cash in on the situation.
Andhra traders purchase paddy from desperate farmers at prices much less than the government-fixed prices.
Sources said one or two paddy procurement centres out of 108 have opened in the district. The procurement centres have not been opened for various reasons one of them being an ongoing strike by employees of cooperative societies.
According to reports, Andhra traders have engaged middlemen in each block to facilitate purchase of paddy from farmers. Over 10 truckloads of paddy are transported out of various areas on a daily basis.
The pointer to this fact was that recently district emergency officer Rajendra Kumar Panda had detained an Andhra-bound paddy-laden truck on Agarpada road. However, no reaction could be available from him about the alleged distress sale of paddy.
Even as such illegal paddy purchase is going on in the district, the administration has not taken any action to stop it or initiated steps to open the procurement centres.
Share-coppers and small and marginal farmers particularly feel the urgency of selling their produce. The delay in opening of procurement centres is forcing them to sell their produce at throwaway prices to the middlemen.
On the other hand, it is alleged that during procurement process, authorities reject 10 kg of paddy per quintal, citing lack of Fair Average Quality standard as reason.
Conscious farmers and social activists observed that famers can be saved from exploitation of the paddy mafia of Andhra if the latter can be reined in with regular monitoring and checks.
The government has set a target of procuring two lakh metric tonnes of paddy through 108 procurement centres, but this plan is being hijacked by AP traders, thanks to the delay. PNN
