Bhograi: Cooperative societies in Bhograi area of Balasore are miffed as the government has not yet cleared their dues – commission and labour charges— for the previous year’s paddy procurement.
Presidents and secretaries of 19 cooperative societies under Balasore-Bhadrak Central Cooperative societies have threatened to stall paddy procurement in the current Kharif season.
In a press conference, they alleged that the government’s slogan for development of cooperative sector has been confined to pen and paper. They demanded immediate clearance of the pending dues.
Unless the commission and labour charges of the previous years are not cleared, paddy procurement for 2019-20 will not be started, they warned.
They threatened agitation which is likely to cause a lot of inconveniences to the farmers and the paddy procurement process. Presidents of the cooperative societies observed if societies were not cleared of their financial dues then how they can disburse loans to poor and marginal farmers.
They have a host of demands like 10 per cent of crop insurance coverage for loss of paddy and other non-crops due to Bulbul. Other demands included improvised mechanised system to rightly determine quality of FAQ and other paddy, necessary provision of funds to improve infrastructure in the cooperative societies and implementation of the Vaidyanathan Committee’s recommendations among others.
In view of the inconveniences faced by the cooperative societies, the government should take immediate step to clear the pending dues to avoid unnecessary standoff in the paddy procurement, they urged.