In spite of many schemes launched by the Government to help the farmers, in Keonjhar district, the farmers seem to be left to fend for themselves.
The difficulties of the farmers came to the fore during a grievance hearing by Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thackre on Tuesday here as per the orders of the Orissa High Court.Sources revealed that this year when paddy procurement date was announced by the Government, the farmers of Saharapara block of Keonjhar district had deposited their paddy at their respective nearby Mandi till it was closed on March 23.
As per the State Government guidelines, a farmer will receive all the payments within 24 to 72 hours after depositing the crop in the Mandi but this year, when the payment was held up on plea of Covid lockdown, it sparked off resentment among the farmers.
Besides discrimination in payment of dues by the Mandi authority who tried to pacify some farmers by clearing their payments due to their political link again worsened the situation.
The aggrieved ones met the CSO, the DRCS and the Collector, though they got little relief. Even the political leadership including the ruling Patna MLA and opposition leaders left the poor deprived farmers in the lurch. However, leader Akhila Naik organised them to file a case in the Orissa High Court and the High Court after hearing the case had directed the Collector, Keonjhar to take a decision and pass orders within three months. Sources said the Collector assured the farmers that their payments would be cleared soon.
However, after coming out of hearing, farmers like Krupacharya Mahanta, Dharanidhar Mahanta, Jagannath Mahanta, Chintamani Mahanta, Janardan Mahanta, Jhadeswar Mahanta, Dhaneswar Mahanta, Stimudin Ansari and many others demanded that they be paid the interest over the period of for delay in payment of their dues besides initiation of criminal proceeding against the corrupt officials.