Complaints of irregularities hit Bihar’s paddy procurement drive

Worried over the tardy pace of procurement, chief secretary Tripurari Sharan had on Thursday directed the DMs of all the districts to expedite the process and sort out issues in the light of complaints received at the call centres on a priority basis.

The state cooperative department’s bid to ensure timely procurement of paddy from the farmers has been crippled by the allegations of irregularities in payment and the general reluctance of the staff engaged in the procurement process of the major Kharif crop in the region.

Pacs and VMs of Supaul emerged as the highest procurer of paddy with their stock crossing over 23,000MT. (Representational image)

As a result, the department so far could procure only 3.02 lakh metric tonne (MT) of paddy from the farmers against the target of 45 lakh MT, set for 2021-22 fiscal. The state government started the procurement process on November 1 and scheduled to wind it up by January 31. The state government had authorised around 5,200 primary agriculture cooperative societies (Pacs) and Vyapar Mandals (VMs) out of the total 7153 agencies to procure the produce.

“On an average, we are receiving 30-50 complaints from the farmers across the state that their product is not being taken by the staff of primary agriculture cooperative societies (Pacs) of Vypar Mandals (VMs) over different reasons. We refer the cases to the cooperative department for resolution. The complaints related to payment of paddy lower than the MSP of ₹1940-1960 per quintal and refusal to buy paddy in the name of excess moisture,” said an executive manning the department’s call centre.

Worried over the tardy pace of procurement, chief secretary Tripurari Sharan had on Thursday directed the district magistrates (DMs) of all the districts to expedite the process and sort out issues in the light of complaints received at the call centres on a priority basis. A senior officer of the cooperative department said that an individual farmer is eligible to sell up to 250 quintals of paddy to Pacs/VMs, while sharecroppers are allowed to sell 100 quintals.

Agriculture secretary N Saravana Kumar said that over 8.50 lakh farmers had registered themselves with the department’s portal to sell paddy with the government agencies. So far, nearly 41,000 farmers could avail of the facility. Pacs and VMs of Supaul emerged as the highest procurer of paddy with their stock crossing over 23,000MT, while Munger stood at the bottom of the procurement list with around 447MT stock of paddy on Friday.

“It could be due to the farmers’ protest in Delhi that the state government launched the procurement from November 1 this year against November 15 year. But getting the MSP of the produce is difficult, as we need to spend some extra bucks to arrange smooth procurement of paddy,” said Vijay Mishra, a farmer of Bikramganj in Rohtas.