Bhubaneswar: Following allegations of mismanagement in paddy procurement, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra Monday directed officials to ensure paddy is procured from all genuine farmers in the state during the current kharif season.
Holding a high-level meeting with Collectors and senior officials, Mahapatra said, “No genuine farmer should be deprived of selling paddy to government during the kharif marketing season 2021-22.” He directed Collectors to form sufficient number of joint verification teams involving field level officers from the departments of agriculture, cooperation, revenue and water resources for 100 per cent field verification of actual farmers and their crop area.
He also asked officials to prepare the final list of genuine farmers for paddy procurement by weeding out the possibilities of fake crop area registration and sealing the scope for the entry of unscrupulous middlemen into the system. Stressing the importance of field verification in the entire procurement process, the CS sought to conduct it with sincerity and accuracy.
It was decided that field verification would be combined with verification of actual land records, land category (kisam), crop areas, types and source of irrigation, bank details, mobile numbers of farmers and other factors. The paddy cultivated area would be cross-verified with satellite data collected through ORSAC. After registration and verification, SMSes would be sent to farmers on the extent of the cultivated land registered for procurement. Payment to farmers would be done through their bank accounts, and, all payments would be integrated with online public financial management system.
Cooperation secretary VV Yadav said an interactive voice recording system would be set up to handle farmers’ queries regarding registration and procurement. A dedicated toll-free number 1967 had been set up for receiving the telephonic grievances of farmers.