Bhubaneswar: Following the din witnessed over the alleged irregularities in paddy procurement and mandi issues in the past one week, normalcy returned to the Odisha Assembly on Friday when the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain announced a definite time-frame for completing the paddy procurement process in the State.
Addressing the House today, Swain assured the members that paddy from all registered farmers in the State will be procured by March 31.
“Already 61.24 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured in the State. The total procurement so far is nearly 18% more compared to the procurement in Kharif season last year,” said Swain.
The Minister said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed officials to ensure that farmers did not face problems in selling their produce anywhere in the State. The government has started taking a review to find out the problems faced by the farmers in various districts of the State.
“Not a single registered farmer in the State will be left out in the on-going paddy procurement process. If any MLA brings to notice any anomalies, efforts will be taken to resolve such issues at the earliest,” Swain added.
The Minister’s statement, however, failed to pacify the Opposition members especially the BJP MLAs who staged a walk out in protest of the procurement glitches.