By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday chaired a review meeting at Lok Seva Bhawan and directed the District Collectors to curb any irregularity and corruption in paddy procurement.
Deputy CM Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, Dy CM Pravati Parida, Minister of Revenue and Disaster Management Suresh Pujari, Minister of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Krushna Chandra Patra, Minister of Law, Labor and Excise Prithviraj Harichandan, Minister for Cooperation, Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts Pradeep Bala Samanta were among those present along with Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, ACS to Chief Minister Nikunja Bihari Dhal, Director General of Police Y.B. Khurania and principal secretaries of agriculture, cooperation, food supplies, transport and other related departments were present. District Magistrates of all districts participated in the meeting through virtual medium.
CM Majhi said that for the first time, Rs 800 more than the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy is being paid and there is great enthusiasm among the farmers. Therefore, every minister will take responsibility as supervisor of one or two districts so that the process of paddy procurement is completely transparent. They will act as One-Point-Contact for the Government.
The Chief Minister said that the Ministers will visit the districts and various mandis and listen to the farmers’ issues to address them. He advised all concerned departments and district officials to work in coordination to streamline the entire system.
He said that 83.16 per cent of the total registered farmers are small farmers. It is the responsibility of the District Magistrates to ensure that they can sell their paddy without any issues. He advised the district officials to give priority to the small farmers during the procurement of paddy.
Similarly, small farmers do not get specific information about the duration of the token. Therefore, the Chief Minister advised the District Collectors to extend the period of their tokens as well as sensitize them. The Chief Minister said that to stop ‘Katni Chatni’, a massive awareness campaign is needed to ensure that farmers bring only FAQ quality paddy to the market.
CM Majhi advised them to inform frequently in this regard, especially in the WhatsApp group of farmers. The Chief Minister has ordered to ensure complete transparency in testing FAQ paddy. The Chief Minister directed the District Collectors to hold the market management officials accountable for determining the quality of paddy.
According to the decision of the meeting, there will be one mandi management officer in each mandi and there will be a supervisor for every four or five mandis. Along with this, monitoring of all the programs in Mandis will be done through a central dashboard. Along with this, the system of paddy procurement will be monitored with the help of the Quality Council Of India.
The discussion of the meeting revealed that due to the increase in the price of paddy in Odisha, the possibility of paddy coming to Odisha from other states has increased. So the District Magistrates have made arrangements for the deployment of an Enforcement Squad in all the border areas. 24-hour monitoring of highways connecting bordering states through CCTV or smart cameras will be carried out during the paddy procurement process.
Similarly, Automatic Grain Analyzer will be arranged in 2000 large mandis to determine the quality of grain while Manual Grain Analyzer will also be arranged in small mandis. Quality Analyst and Quality Supervisor will be employed at each grain collection centre to inspect and certify the grain.
