leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh on Wednesday shot up a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and sought to know the reasons on delay in paddy procurement in the current season. He said the delay was against the interest of the farmers.
After his recent tour to four districts such as Kalahandi, Balangir, Bargarh and Sonepur and review of paddy procurement at the designated centers, Singh found that the procurement suffered from many handicaps. He said while many paddy procurement centers were set up on road side, they lacked minimum facilities for farmers and the required machinery for procurement.
Even though the Government has declared that payment after procurement will be made within 3 to 7 days, it is a distant dream for the farmers because there is acute shortage of staff at the Primary Agriculture Co-Operative Societies (PACS) and cooperative banks. There is no instance of paddy being lifted on the same day of its arrival in any centre. All these lead to harassment of the farmers, Singh alleged in the letter.
Further, he added that the most painful experience for the farmers is to wait in the centers for as long as a week for paddy disposal. He requested the Chief Minister to have a review meeting through video conferencing on procurement to stop harassment of farmers.