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Rural Development Minister Susanta Singh on Sunday admitted that some farmers in Odisha are facing problems in selling their paddy due to glitches in the token system in paddy procurement.
Farmers in the State had been alleging that the token system is a faulty one while accusing the ruling-BJD of concealing its failure in paddy procurement.
"I personally reviewed and found problems in the token system. Almost 90 per cent such issues being faced by farmers here have been resolved and we are ensuring no famer will face any further problem," said Singh.
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Singh further said that some farmers are facing problems in selling paddy as their token period lapsed. "We have demanded for the re-issuance of tokens for such farmers and the secretary here has assured to regenerate the tokens," he said.
Farmers are issued token generated from the State capital and is given a time period to sell their paddy at the nearby paddy procurement centre or mandis.
"We have demanded for a minimum validity of 30 days for tokens as farmers sometimes face crop harvesting issues. Farmers can sell their paddy without any hassle if the validity of tokens is increased to one month," the BJD Minister added.
On the other hand, the Odisha government on Friday demanded a hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 2930.
"The hike in MSP is necessitated as the farmers of Odisha are always bearing the brunt of various natural calamities. The Central assistance is not adequate for them. So, the MSP of paddy should be increased to Rs 2930 per quintal," said Odisha Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo.
