The Statesman, Dec 19, 2008
Statesman News Service
BHAWANIPATNA, Dec. 18: The alleged failure of state agencies to achieve the targetted amount of paddy procurement, is raising concerns among the district administration and is reportedly leading to distress sales among farmers.
In an emergency review meeting held here recently, the collector of Kalahandi Mr R Santh Gopalan expressed his displeasure over the performance of several state agencies. The collector cautioned the agencies particularly the Food Corporation of India (FCI) that action will be taken against them if they do not speed-up the procurement.
The targetted amount of procurement for the current year in the district is 2.60 lakh MT of rice which corresponds to 3.83 lakh MT of paddy. The Orissa State Civil Supply Corporation (OSCSC), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), Primary Agriculture Societies, FCI, National Collateral Management Services Limited (NCMSL), Markfed and NBFC started the procurement on 5 November. However, only 42 per cent of the targetted paddy procurement has been achieved so far.
According to official reviews the FCI has procured only 0.55 per cent of its target so far. Although it was allocated to procure 88,235 MT of paddy it has procured only 489 MT. Similarly Markfed has procured 12.14 per cent of its target while NAFED has procured 26.78 per cent of its target.
On the other hand OSCSC has already achieved 97 per cent of its target. As against target given to OSCSC to procure 1,32,352 MT of paddy it has already procured 1,28,388 MT.
During the meeting it was decided that procurement will be concentrated in 53 Regulated Market Committee (RMC) yards. It was also decided that the performance of custom millers attached to different procurement agencies will be judges and good performance will be felicitated.
Meanwhile farmers in the district opine that if some agencies are unable to meet the procurement targets the administration should engage other agencies for the work.
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