Chhatrapur: A case of false crop declaration has come to light in Chhatrapur block of Ganjam district, where a farmer allegedly registered paddy cultivation on a land that actually houses a fuel pump.
Following detection through satellite survey, the Cooperation Department has issued a show-cause notice to the farmer concerned.
According to official sources, under Maa Kalijai Women’s Self-Help Group Society in the Badamadhapur panchayat, a farmer registered his paddy cultivation on plot No. 2468 under Khata No. 770. However, verification revealed that a petrol pump exists on the said plot.
The discrepancy went undetected during the initial physical verification by the Cooperation Department but was identified later through a satellite survey conducted by ORSAC.
Officials said the land-use classification (kisam) of the plot has not been changed despite the presence of a petrol pump.
Based on these findings, the Cooperation Department issued a letter December 23 directing that a show-cause notice be served to the farmer for registering non-agricultural land as cultivable farmland.
When contacted, the secretary of the society said that he had mentioned that paddy cultivation was not carried out on the plot, but due to an inadvertent error, it was recorded as paddy land.
He also said that 699 plots under the society were struck off during the current season for noncompliance.
Officials said the issue is not limited to a single case. Several plots across the district, where there is no visible sign of paddy cultivation, were allegedly shown as cultivated land for farmer registration purposes.
To bring transparency to the paddy procurement process, the government has undertaken satellite surveys of suspicious plots. District Registrar of Cooperative Societies (DRCS) Jogamaya Sabat said the state government has identified 2,33,438 suspicious plots in the district, as communicated through an official letter.
Satellite surveys are being conducted for all doubtful plots, and about 95% of the survey work in the district has been completed so far.
Data indicates that 1,71,619 plots have been identified as non-paddy agricultural land.
Officials said once the survey is completed, a large number of fake farmer registrations will be removed from the system.
During the current kharif season, 1,56,713 farmers have registered in the district, compared with 1,46,504 registrations during the previous year.