BJP MPs Urge Goyal To Intervene Into Mismanagement In Paddy Procurement Process In Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Dec 22: A delegation of BJP parliament members from Odisha on Wednesday urged Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal to intervene personally and resolve the alleged mismanagement and corruption in paddy procurement process in the state.

In a memorandum , the delegation requested the Union Minister to instruct the state government to strictly follow the recommendations made by a team of the Department of Food and Public Distribution for seamless and timely procurement of farmers produce and timely compensation of farmers in Odisha.

The delegation comprising of Union Minister D Pradhan and Ashwini Vaishnab, Parliament Members Pratap Sarangi, Aparajita Sarangi, Basanta Panda, Nitish Gangdeb, Sangeeta Singh Deo, and state Krishan Morcha President Pradip Purohit alleged that the state government is yet to act on the suggestions and recommendations made by a central fact finding team

The central team had visited the state from March 21 to 25 last to oversee the paddy procurement operations and made some observations. The team, they said ,has pointed out corruption prevailed in Regulated Market Committees (RMC), PACs and Paddy Procurement Centres. 

The issues raised by the central team on the shortcomings in the paddy procurement operation in Odisha are still persistent and continue to hamper the procurement process, the BJP delegation said .

The actual paddy procurement window in all the RMC is curtailed compared to the official window creating panic among small and marginal farmers and against the official 151-day window, actual procurement windows varied from 40 to 43 days in some RMCs,the BJP MPs alleged.

The 30 day token system is being exploited by Secretary PACs/PPC to summon farmers on a particular date to bring paddy for sale is leading to favouritism and many tokens belong to small and marginal farmers are cancelled. Procurement operations are only partially digitized against state government’s claim of complete digitisation.

The quality control process was almost a nonexistent and the entire procurement process was found to be miller driven,the delegation team alleged. The farmers, the BJP leaders said are forced to sell their produce at lower rate than the MSP at the miller point.

Gunny bags are neither provided nor cost of gunny bags are paid to the farmers who are bearing the cost of transportation of paddy from their farm to mandis and even to millers yards.

Farmers are forced to sacrifice 6 to 8 kg of paddy per quintal to PPC brokers and agents locally known as Katni and Chhatni.

Infrastructure at market yard is found to be not adequate especially for bulk handling and the District Paddy procurement committee has no power to resolve issues faced by farmers like lapse of token, less target, and the katni chhatni issue.

The delegation said the Kharif Marketing season 2021-22 has started from October 1 last without much ground work at RMC,PAC, PPC causing hardship for the farmers to sell their produce.

The failure of the state government in managing the mandis and high dependence on millers has led to lapses of issued tokens to the farmers resulting in non realisation of fair price of their crop, the memorandum said.