In a bid to boost morale of the farmers of the State, Food Supplies and Finance Minister in the State Government, Dr Rameshwar Oraon said, on Friday, that the procurement of paddy will start across the State from December 15.

Talking to the media persons Oraon said that out of the total amount 50 per cent of the amount will be paid to the paddy farmers immediately, while efforts will be made to pay the remaining amount within three months. The Government is arranging funds for this and a loan will be taken from State Bank of India. He made it clear that the State Government will provide the benefit of Minimum Support Price (MSP) to the farmers, businessmen and traders who will not get the benefit of this scheme.

The Food Supply Minister also revealed that last year some wrong people also entered in the name of farmers to get the benefit of MSP. “It has come to the fore in the investigation that around 65,000 such people sold paddy, who had red ration cards, that is they were living below the poverty line. This means that either their ration cards were wrong or the certificate of being a farmer was made wrong, because the people living below the poverty line do not come to the paddy purchasing center and sell the paddy, they use their produce for the whole year. It has also come to the fore in the last time that many farmers sold 400 to 1000 quintals of paddy, while the truth is that there is no such farmer in Jharkhand who can sell one thousand quintals of paddy in a year. Investigation is going on and the culprits will be identified and punished according to the law,” he added.

Oraon said that in order to keep all these malpractices and middlemen away from this process, the State Government has decided this year that a maximum 200 quintal of paddy will be procured.