Farmers harvesting paddy | Express
JEYPORE: With the farmers’ registration of paddy procurement for the ensuing rabi season underway, instances of middlemen posing as farmers and falsely getting themselves registered in different primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) has come to the fore.
As per the government orders, registration process in Koraput district began on March 1 and is scheduled to end on March 15. However, many unscrupulous paddy middlemen from Jeypore, Kumuliput, Kotpad, Borigumma and Kumuli are reportedly arriving at the respective PACS centres with several farmers’ documents and registering them all at a time causing inconvenience for the PACS staff.
Reportedly, norms suggest farmers should individually submit their forms for paddy procurement or through any of their relatives but the middlemen here submit several papers at a time for their vested interests. They do so to allegedly grab the paddy stock of the farmers and ask them to sell their paddy at the mandis through them.
“It is the modus operandi of the middlemen to avail profits by forcing farmers to sell their produce through them. Strict action should be taken against those involved in such activities,” said social activist Ajay Mishra. Concerning the issue, PACS staff said they are helpless.
“We cannot restrict their entry into the office for registration. When questioned, they ask us to show government orders that restrict their entry into the centres for registration,” said a PACS official.
Contacted, Koraput Central Cooperative Bank president Iswar Panigrahi said that he would instruct all PACS managing directors and cooperative staff to ensure fair deal in the farmers’ registration process and accept forms that are submitted either by individual farmers or their relatives.
