Plea in Orissa high court over paddy buying issues
By Lalmohan Patnaik
A Berhampur-based organisation has approached the Orissa high court seeking judicial intervention against what it termed as ‘illegal practices’ by paddy procurement agencies and officials across several districts.
In its petition filed on Friday, the private organisation has named the principal secretaries of the food supplies and consumer welfare, agriculture and farmers’ empowerment, and cooperation departments, along with the managing director of Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation, as opposite parties in the matter. The plea also questions the role of district collectors, civil supply officers, assistant registrars of cooperative societies and secretaries of service cooperative societies.
The petition has alleged that despite the govt notifying mandis and issuing tokens to farmers specifying date, time and quantity for procurement, farmers are being compelled to transport paddy directly to private millers. In districts like Ganjam, Gajapati and Rayagada, millers are located far from villages, in some cases up to 50 km away, forcing farmers to incur transportation costs.
It was further alleged that paddy is not being lifted according to the quantity mentioned in tokens and that unauthorised deductions of 5-7 kg per quintal are being made citing quality issues. The petition also claimed that millers and cooperative officials are charging farmers illegally towards labour and packaging, resulting in losses of around Rs 150 to Rs 200 per quintal.
Seeking relief, the organisation has urged the HC to direct authorities to make declared mandis operational, ensure procurement strictly as per tokens and MSP without deductions, use proper weighing machines and reimburse transportation and jute bag costs to farmers.
The organisation pointed out that while the govt bears the cost of jute bags and transportation, farmers are neither being provided free gunny bags nor reimbursed for transport expenses. In Deogarh district, the petition alleged the use of defective weighing machines, causing further loss to farmers.
Claiming collusion between millers and officials to allow procurement from the open market at lower rates, the petitioner said farmers are being denied the benefit of the MSP fixed by the govt. Farmers have submitted representations before district authorities but their grievances remain unresolved, the petition stated.
This article has been republished from The Times of India.