TV
Tension and confusion run high among farmers of several panchayats in Odisha, who have levied allegations of the improper functioning of paddy mandis leading to severe distress.
Sources reported that alleged non-procurement of paddy left farmers on edge in many societies of Beguniapada and Khallikote blocks in Ganjam district. Additional reports also stated that vast quantities of harvest lay unsold and stocked at local Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in these regions.
In another alarming instance, a PAC society in Kushadipa village under Badhinuapalli panchayat in the same district has reportedly stopped functioning this year. Further, no clear instructions on where to sell their paddy have been handed out to farmers from the village, leading to chaos.
A farmer from Badhinuapalli, Manoranjan Mohapatra, claimed that he tried reaching out to officials but was not offered any concrete solution. “An official asked me to bring my harvest to Kairasi village. Upon demanding the reason behind it, he threatened me and said that this was the only solution,” he added.
Similar allegations followed with another farmer of the area, Santosh Mohapatra lamenting about incurring massive expenses if he were to take his harvest to Kairasi, situated about 100 kilometers from the village. “Neither the government nor the PAC society will bear my expenses and any of my earnings will go down the drain,” he said.
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Meanwhile, in other areas, the stockpile of paddy is under constant threat from elephants and wild boars. Reports from the Binika region featured visuals of farmers having to guard their paddy all night under the open sky, enduring the cold winter nights.
No response from the administration regarding the farmers’ complaints about the non-functioning of paddy mandis could be obtained, as of yet.
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Incidentally, the shocking allegations have surfaced at a time when the state is trying to brace with multiple cases of farmer deaths being reported from several districts after their crops were damaged by last month’s unseasonal rains.
