Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government has now come up with an ‘alternative plan’ to ensure the paddy procurement is not affected keeping in view the ongoing strike by the workers of Large Area Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPS) and Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) in the kharif season.
As per the new directive issued by Cooperatives Department and Food and Civil Supplies Department, the Regulated Marketing Committees (RMC) will now take over all the paddy procurement operations in the State.
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In a letter to all district collectors, the department has asked RMC to appoint a purchase officer (PO) who will manage the procurement operations with the help of a data entry officer.
The POs have been asked to ensure that all the procurement is made through P-PAS software and online transfer of minimum support price (MSP) to farmers.
The move comes after paddy procurement has been adversely affected due to the ongoing strike of LAMPS and PACS employees which has now entered its 28th day.
As paddy procurements are done in a time bound manner, the ongoing strike has created problems for the State government to complete the process of kharif crop procurement.
Senior district administration officials claim that the disruptions in procurement is likely to create problems for farmers to sell their produce to the State agencies through PACS and LAMPS societies.