The Congress held road blockade on Thursday from 10am to 2pm alleging massive irregularities in procurement of paddy during the ongoing Kharif marketing season (KMS).
The Congress workers and leaders alleged that even after a month of opening of mandis at 58 places in the district, the process of procuring paddy has been affected and there is delay due to the presence of middleman and inadequate infrastructure in the mandis.
Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati said middlemen are exploiting the marginal farmers in mandis. They are procuring paddy from small and marginal farmers at a price much lower than the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the Government, he said.
Bahinipati demanded that the administration take immediate steps to check the presence of middlemen in the mandis.
Bahinpati also said through the Regional Marketing Committee (RMC) is entrusted with the task of organising mandis, it is not providing the necessary infrastructure for the same.
The RMC has no grader machines to check the quality of the paddy while the officials were just checking the quality of paddy manually and rejecting it, he alleged. Bahiniapati also said only 800 quintals of paddy have been procured in the district against the target of 14 lakh quintals. He warned to hold Koraput bandh if the issue was not resolved soon.
When asked, Jeypore Sub-Collecter Lokanath Dalabehera said all steps are being taken to streamline the functioning of the mandis. “We are in talks with both the farmers and millers to resolve the issue,” he told.
Hundreds of farmers blocked the roads and shut down the shops in different interior pockets of the district to show their anger against the delay and the irregularities made during procurement.
However, common people affected by the bandh expressed their anger against the bandh organisers. Among others senior leaders Binod Mohapatra , Krushna Chandra Nepak, Siba Pattnaik, Nihar Bisoyi, Nori Mohanty, Ajit Samantray, Rama Nayak, Youth Congress members Surya Patnaik, Sukant Patnaik, Jyotiranjan Mohapatra, Sital Rath, Chinu and Durga Shankar Sharma were present.
