lack of Kissan Bhavan in Palamu hits storage of paddy which will be procured from farmers.
Out of the 15 paddy procurement centres identified and set up in Palamu there are just two Paddy Procurement Centre (PPC) at Kissan Bhavan one each in Tarhassi and in Pandu..
The PPCs are the godowns too.
Sources said for want of adequate godowns the DSO Palamu has offered college hostel, private godown to FCI Palamu for PPC and the storage of paddy bags.
A hostel of teachers' training college in Satbarwa has been set up as PPC cum godown for the procured paddy.
Similarly a godown belonging to one Baijnath Prasad in Chhaterpur will serve as PPC cum godown.
The Pioneer accessed the letter of DSO Palamu written to regional manager FCI Palamu in this regard where the DSO has mentioned the names of venues of 15 places in this district to work as PPC cum godown.
DC Palamu Ameet Kumar confirming the setting up of 15 PPCs said the FCI is to manage this where will be stationed procurement official and other staff to assist in the procurement of paddy.
When reminded that last year there were allegations of farmers of Bihar pushing in their paddy at PPCs here for reasons of high price of paddy per quintal in Jharkhand then the DC Ameet Kumar said ' This time check and balance is well knit. Every farmer is to be registered. He has to produce his land possessing certificate'.
He further added every farmer is to produce a copy of his Adhaar card number along with the bank account number.
Sources said the PACS godown at Kishunpur was found short of space for storage and hence DSO Palamu has directed regional manager FCI to set up PPC cum godown at Paton PACS.
Sources said the godown capacity ranges from 100 MT to 3,000 MT also.
There are two 3,000 MT capacity PPCs cum godowns one each at Panki and at Chainpur. 1,500 MT capacity godowns are at lesliganj and Hussainabad.
1,000 MT capacity PPCs cum godowns are at Daltonganj, Pandu and Tarhassi.
The Harihurganj block office premise will serve as PPC cum godown.
Farmers said that that the government has fixed the procurement price of paddy per quintal at Rs 1,600, which is on the upper side. But the formalities in this are too harsh like registration of farmers, submission of family tree to decide the ppaddy production, adhar card number, bank account number and the big of all to take down the bags of paddy to PPCs which is far time consuming and financially exhaustive too, they said.