Paddy procurement under lens in Rohtas

SASARAM: Rohtas district magistrate (DM) Animesh Parasar on Thursday said stern action would be taken against such primary agricultural credit societies which allegedly achieved the target of paddy procurement by procuring paddy from landless farmers. The alleged irregularities in paddy procurement were detected at a review meeting recently convened by the DM.
The DM said an inquiry has been initiated to ascertain how the credit societies managed to meet the target by just purchasing paddy from landless farmers.
Altogether 247 primary agricultural credit societies are there in the district and most of them allegedly procured paddy from landless farmers. Surprisingly, farmers who own land did not turn up at the procurement centre even though the minimum support price offered to them was around Rs 200 more than prevailing market price per quintal.
“It seems there is something wrong with the way credit societies have achieved their targets. A proper inquiry will make things clear,” the DM added.
Rohtas had hit the headlines in 2010-11 and 2011-12 when paddy worth crores of rupees was procured only on paper. Later, a vigilance inquiry found involvement of many officials in the scam.
A district administration official said records of the cooperative department, which looks after paddy procurement through primary agricultural credit societies, show that against the target of 2.10 lakh tonne, only 88,884 tonne has been procured in last three months from around 11,700 farmers. “At least 30% of total procurement was done in just one week,” said a source.