Jajpur: The state government has ordered a probe into charges of food scarcity gripping the district. The move followed publication of a news item in Orissa POST, a report said here Tuesday.
Joint secretary, state food supplies and consumer welfare department took serious note of the OP report ‘Food scarcity stares in face of Jajpur district’ November 3 and issued a letter to the district collector November 10 to take necessary steps.
The report published by this daily stated that Jajpur district is in the grip of an acute food shortage as its food stocks do not last more than six months. This is because only 20 per cent of the paddy produced in the district is procured by the government with the rest going waste due to frequent natural calamities like flood and drought.
One to two millers every year default to submit their milled paddy to the district administration. A report said that rice worth Rs 2.84 crore is still outstanding with two millers.
This has seriously hit the implementation of various poverty alleviation schemes like BPL, Antodaya and MDM schemes. This has also hit the rice collection programme as the district administration failed to achieve 100 per cent collection by November 15.
Sources said out of 1, 45,450 hectares of farmland, only 42 per cent is irrigated for kharif season and 23 per cent in rabi season. In reality, half the farmland is not irrigated. Moreover, farmlands are shrinking at faster rate due to ongoing industrialisation in the district.
Though the district has a lot of water bodies, indifference of the irrigation department officials and local politicos has come in the way of achieving self-sufficiency in food production.
The district administration has also failed to ensure food security for BPL, Annapurna, Antodaya and mid-day meal (MDM) beneficiaries as it has to depend on other districts for five lakh quintals of rice out of its actual requirement of 10 lakh quintals.
5 lakh quintals of paddy collected from within the district meets the food requirements for six months while the district has to depend on other districts for the rest of the year.
This could have been avoided had the district administration given stress on paddy procurement during two crop seasons and provided irrigation facilities to farmlands, observers pointed out.
According to available reports, over 7, 08,558 quintals of paddy was procured from farmers during 2016-17 fiscal and was given to 10 custom millers for milling.
While 7, 08,254 quintals of paddy was procured during kharif, the rest was collected during rabi. Accordingly, the district administration was expected to receive 4, 94,679.95 quintals of rice after milling.
However, only 4,62,170.51 quintals of rice was received by October 9 with 32,509.44 quintals of rice deliveries still pending with three millers namely Mahabir Rice Mill, Bhagabati Rice Mill, and SGS Foods Pvt Ltd.
Earlier, criminal cases were filed against three defaulting rice mills while charge sheets were prepared against then civil supply officer and two of his juniors.
When contacted, district supply officer Surendra Kumar Hota said efforts are being made to collect the held over rice from two defaulting millers while plans are afoot to initiate legal action against Bhagabati rice mill which is not in a position to submit its share of rice. PNN
