Raipur, 24 November 2020. According to the instructions of the state government, in the Kharif marketing year 2020-21, procurement of paddy from farmers is to be done from December 01, 2020 on support price. Preparations are being done on a large scale for this. Food Secretary Dr. Kamalpreet Singh today inspected several paddy procurement centers in Mahasamund district. The Food Secretary made a surprise inspection of the village Jhalkhamharia, Bawankera, Chowkbeda and Badgow and agricultural produce mandi Bagbahara and Paddy Procurement Center Ghuchapali to take stock of the preparations being made for the farmers’ paddy procurement and gave necessary instructions to the officials.
Secretary Dr. Kamalpreet Singh said that due to the proximity of several procurement centers of Odisha province in Mahasamund district, there is a possibility of bringing illegal paddy through the coaches. Therefore, there is a need to keep close vigil in the border. For this, before the purchase of paddy, the nodal officers were appointed and directed to conduct continuous monitoring. He said that the availability of gunny bags in all the centers should be ensured before the paddy purchase starts. Last year, strict monitoring should be done in the paddy procurement centers where the disturbances were found. He said that this year the weather is favorable as more paddy is expected to be purchased. The number of farmers has increased in paddy registration. He said that paddy acreage has been registered in Girdawari. Accordingly, the actual acreage sown by the farmers should be purchased.
He gave necessary guidelines for arranging drainage and issuing tokens for paddy sale to farmers a week ago. Apart from this, he also saw the quality of old and new gunny bags available in the Rural Services Cooperative Society Jhalkhamaria. It is noteworthy that in Kharif season 2020-21, one lakh 40 thousand farmers of Mahasamund district have registered in cooperative societies for selling paddy. The total area of which is more than 02 lakh 11 thousand hectare. During the inspection, Collector of Mahasamund district Shri Karthikeya Goyal, Nodal Officer of District Cooperative Central Bank, Food Officer, Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies, District Marketing Officer and officers and employees of the concerned department were present.