Chhatrapur: Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Chandra Pujari has directed the Ganjam district administration to float fresh tenders for opening more mandis for procurement of rice from farmers as the present number of mandis is falling insufficient to the needs.
The minister’s direction came during a review meeting with the district administration and other departmental officers during his one-day visit to Ganjam district Friday. Issues related to the ongoing paddy procurement, women’s SHGs, industries, and revenue department were discussed during the meeting.
According to reports, paddy procurement process was the major focus during the early part of the review. The minister was told that 111 out of the 478 PACS (Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies) in the district are run by women SHGs. The procured paddy-filled gunny bags are supplied to around 361 rice mills across the district.
About 1,73,424.47 quintal of paddy have been procured so far from 4,079 farmers out of 1,46,504 registered farmers in 435 PACS, Ganjam Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida said.
The mandis, which opened since January 3, are currently running. However, the untimely incessant rainfalls last month has slowed down the procurement process, the minister was informed.
Digapahandi MLA Siddhant Mohapatra, who was present in the meeting, urged Pujari that the procurement process be taken up for those farmers who could not produce the specified quality of paddy due to rains.
To this, the revenue minister said that the government will support the needs of the farmers, and asked the district administration to float fresh tenders to open more mandis for procurement.
Later, Pujari also reviewed the mutation OLR of the revenue department, providing RoR to the Basundhara institutions, land acquisition and collection of revenue in the district. Till date, 703 cases have been reported in the e-mutation and 629 cases have been resolved.
Out of the 8,667 applications under Basundhara scheme, 1,643 eligible beneficiaries had received land RoR, and another 757 beneficiaries will receive the same by the end of this month.
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The minister asked the administration to provide land to members of various Scheduled Tribes (STs) after proper identification of the lands.
The minister also directed the revenue department to initiate action and acquire land allotted to industries by the state government if they failed to utilize the space properly or left any portion of it vacant.
Berhampur MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, Transport, Commerce and Steel & Mines Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena, Chhatrapur MLA Krushna Chandra Nayak, Aska MLA Saroj Kumar Padhy, ADM (Revenue) Sudhansu Kumar Bhoi, ADM (GA) Pramod Kumar Prusty were amongst the other departmental officers present in the review meeting.
PNN
