Sambalpur: There seems to be no end to the plight of farmers as thousands of sacks of paddy are piled up outside different market yards in Kuchinda area of Sambalpur district due to lack of procurement.
Unable to sell their paddy, farmers are spending nights under the open sky guarding their harvests outside the mandis in the district.
According to sources, the unprocured paddy of farmers has been lying outside mandis under Jamankira LAMPS in the district for the past 15 days. While 16,238 packets of paddy of 276 farmers are lying in Jamankira mandi, 17,365 sacks of paddy of 144 farmers are piled up at Dimirimunda mandi and 20,675 sacks of paddy of 187 farmers at Bhojpar mandi.
Similarly, 6,742 packets of paddy of 79 farmers are lying at Sirid mandi, 11,934 of at Badmal mandi, 9,188 at Tikalipada mandi and 150 packets at Sarada mandi.
A farmer, Sankar Kishan said, "My 13,000 packets of paddy are lying outside the mandi since the last 15 days. Though a token was issued to me, it lapsed. The officials at the mandi said the procurement ended yesterday morning."
"There are seven market yards under Jamankira LAMPS. About 82,293 packets of paddy of 452 farmers are yet to be procured. We have informed the civil supplies officer (CSO) and sub-collector about our suffering, but to no avail," said another farmer, Nityananda Nayak at Jamankira mandi.
No comments could be obtained from the concerned officials.