BALURGHAT: As per instructions of the state government, paddy procurement has started in South Dinajpur, Bijin Krishna, District Magistrate (DM) of South Dinajpur informed.
“This year, there is a target of buying 1.27 lakh metric-tons of paddy in the district. Paddy will be purchased from a total of 102 centres covering all eight blocks. The concerned Food & Supplies department will directly purchase paddy from 16 centres, cooperative societies and Self-Help-Groups. Farmers are coming to various kisan mandis to enrol and some are renewing their cards. Somewhere the issue of a bad server or internet connection problem came up. It is being investigated. Besides, if any farmer has a problem in the sale of paddy, it will be resolved quickly,” Krishna said.
Although the purchase of paddy has started from November 1, still various kisan mandis are somehow empty as Aman paddy has not grown yet.
Every year the district administration used to buy paddy from the farmers at the price set by the government. Basically this paddy is bought in eight kisan mandis of the district. In addition to this, paddy is also purchased from various organisations, cooperative societies and Self-Help-Groups.
All the farmers whose names are already registered are being contacted and those who are new are in the process of registration.
Paddy will be purchased from around 50,000 farmers across the district. A maximum of 10 quintals of paddy will be purchased from each farmer with a government support price of Rs 1960/quintal.
Yogesh Pahan, a farmer who came to the kisan mandi, said: “I came to register my name in the kisan mandi to sell paddy and to see if there are any mistakes. I could not enrol my name due to a bad internet connection and this had happened to many farmers.”
Pierul Molla, another farmer, said: “I applied for the sale of paddy online but my application has not yet been approved or dismissed. I came to kisan mandi to find out why this happened. I was informed that this happened because of a slow internet server.”