Admin to rope in more millers to lift paddy

JAGATSINGHPUR:THE district administration will rope in millers from neighbouring districts to lift paddy from the farmers during the upcoming kharif procurement season. This was decided during district paddy procurement meeting chaired by Collector Yamini Sarangi on Wednesday.

Sources said the district requires minimum 40 rice millers to lift around 10 lakh quintals of paddy, but it has only two to three millers. Though last year, the administration had engaged 21 millers of nearby districts in the kharif paddy procurement season, it was not sufficient. As a result, many farmers failed to sell their produce and later they resorted to distress sale. In order to avoid a similar situation this year, the administration has taken several preventive measures.

It was decided to open 100 paddy purchase centres under 96 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) in the district. So far, 29,859 farmers have registered their names online to sell their produce. The State Government has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy at `1,550 for fair average quality (FAQ) and `1,590 for Grade-A.

The Collector has been empowered to register the names of millers to participate in the paddy procurement and the administration will rope in millers from other districts to complete the task on time. The procurement centres will remain open from December 20 and the administration has already launched an awareness campaign for farmers to register their names, she added.

Registrar of Cooperative Society Kulamani Padhi said online registration of farmers will continue till December 31. A committee comprising Revenue Inspector (RI), Village Level Workers (VLWs), Executive Officer of panchayat and farmers has been formed at block-level to expedite the work. Similarly, a squad, led by the Sub-Collector, has been tasked to check irregularities in lifting paddy, he added.Among others, Cuttack Central Cooperative Bank secretary Jayant Kumar Swain and other senior officials were present.