Farmers protest over raw deal from traders, force Govt into action

They staged a protest demonstration on Wednesday demanding the intervention of officials, forcing additional collector Rohit Singh to rush to the marketyard.

Hyderabad: After protesting against the lack of water supply and demanding compensation for damaged crops, farmers are now moving into the next mode of agitation, with them being meted out a raw deal in purchase of paddy stocks by traders.

A protest on Wednesday in Jangaon has forced the State machinery into action, with cases booked against four traders. Farmers were finding themselves at the receiving end with traders offering Rs.500 to Rs.600 less than the minimum support price in Jangaon.

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They staged a protest demonstration on Wednesday demanding the intervention of officials, forcing additional collector Rohit Singh to rush to the marketyard.

The farmers who threatened to burn their stocks out of sheer frustration, relented with the officers assuring them of a remunerative price by taking up the issue with the government.

The procurement exercise for the Rabi marketing season took off on a positive note, with the Civil Supplies Commissioner Devendar Singh Chouhan facilitating paddy purchases right from the last week of March.

With the Civil Supplies Commissioner, who was monitoring the paddy arrivals and purchases in the market yards almost on hourly basis, being away as election observer to Rajasthan, the services of the corporation began to waver.

The government also wrote to the Election Commission to exclude him from the election duty at this crucial juncture, but the Commission did not oblige, officials said.

As the Commissioner was briefed about the Jangaon episode, he ordered a probe into the issue and directed action against the market committee secretary concerned.

Four traders who sought to purchase the paddy from the farmers, offering as low as Rs.1551 per quintal on the pretext that the stocks had excessive moisture content and were poor in quality, were also booked.

Officials termed it “downright cheating” and liable for punishment as the government was firm on buying paddy at the MSP of Rs.2203 per quintal.

In the wake of the Jangaon incident, Civil Supplies officials in particular and the administration in all districts were put on alert, besides being tasked with the job of monitoring the paddy arrivals in marketyards.

Taking a serious note of the incident, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, in a post on X on Thursday, said the government was sincere in grain purchases.

Collusion of market committee officials with traders would not be tolerated, he said, asking the department to file criminal cases against the four traders who tried to cheat the farmers and congratulated the additional collector, who ordered the suspension of the market secretary on the spot in Jangaon.

The Chief Minister wanted officials across the State to be alert and ensure a fair deal for the farmers in grain purchases.

The Civil Supplies Corporation had decided to open 7149 paddy purchase centers, with officials claiming that 5422 of these were already functional in districts where arrivals started picking up.

Over 31,215 metric tonnes of paddy were procured at 443 centres from 4345 farmers, they said. Officials said the paddy purchase centres would commence procurement operations at 1727 more centres before the weekend. The Corporation is planning to procure at least 75.40 lakh metric tonnes in the Kharif marketing season.