Post News Network
Jeypore, June 11: Farmers of Jeypore block held up vehicular traffic at two places on National Highway no-26 passing through the town Thursday in protest against ticket system introduced by the administration for buying paddy from farmers.
The farmers also raised objection to the quantitative restriction imposed by the administration for procurement of paddy through mandis.
The irate farmers staged road-blockade at Umuri and Kumuliput. They were angry over the administration’s decision to buy only 1,000 quintals of paddy though a paddy mandi. As south-west monsoon is likely to enter the state in next few days, the farmers have apprehension that paddy harvested by them will get damaged due to rain. Therefore, they have been demanding that the administration should buy all the paddy from them without imposing any quantitative restriction.
Thursday, farmers had come to the Large-sized Agricultural Multi-purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPS) offices at Umuri and Kumuliputa for buying tickets to sell their paddy.
But, they were told by the LAMPS authorities that the administration has imposed quantitative restriction for buying paddy from them. As per the government’s direction, the quantity of paddy which will be procured from farmers should not exceed 1,000 quintals. Therefore, it will not be possible to issue tickets to all the farmers and buy all the paddy from them.
Enraged over such decision, the farmers demanded to scrap such ticket system and buy all the paddy from them.
They raised slogans against government and then staged road-blockades to mount pressure on the administration to concede their demands.
In view of the protest, the local block development officer Trinath Majhi and Sadar police station IIC Govind Chandra Buruda went to Umuri and held talks with the protesting farmers. But, the farmers demanded collector or sub-collector to come to the spot and hold talks with them to solve their problems.
The BDO held talks with the collector V Jaykumar on phone and apprised him about the development. He also held talks with the sub-collector Poma Tudu at her office.
Collector sent a message to the farmers through the BDO that paddy would be procured from them after they were issued tickets. He gave assurance that the administration would consider buying more paddy from the farmers. After getting assurance from the collector, farmers removed road-blockade at around 3 pm
Similar protest was also carried out by farmers at Kumuliputa after they were told by the LAMPS authorities that tickets would be issued only to around 40 farmers. As around 300 farmers had come to get the tickets, the decision of LAMPS authorities made them angry. Therefore, they staged road-blockade. Borigumma tehsildar Panchanan Patra went there and told the farmers about the collector’s assurance to buy more paddy from the farmers. Thereafter, the farmers end their protest.
Meanwhile, Jeypore sub-collector Poma Tudu said that ticket system to buy paddy has been introduced on the basis of a decision taken at a meeting on paddy procurement. She added that administration would buy more than 1,000 quintals of paddy through a mandi from farmers.