Ranchi: Jharkhand’s Food Supplies and Finance Minister Dr Rameshwar Oraon on Friday said that the procurement of paddy will start in Jharkhand from December 15.
He said that 50 percent of the amount will be paid to the paddy farmers immediately, while efforts will be made to pay the remaining amount within three months as the government is arranging funds for this. Talking to the press he said that government will take Loan will be taken from SBI and Bank of India for making payment to the farmers.
The Food and Civil Supplies Minister made it clear that the state government will provide the benefit of Minimum Support Price (MSP) to the farmers and traders will not get the benefit.
Dr Rameshwar Oraon also revealed that last year some wrong people had also entered themselves in name of farmer to get the benefit of Minimum Support Price. It has come to the fore in the investigation that 65 thousand such people sold paddy, who had red ration card, that is, they were living below the poverty line this means that either their ration card was 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.
The minister said that 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 therefore investigation is going on and the culprits will be identified soon.
The Minister said that in order to keep all these malpractices and middlemen away from this process, the State Government has decided this year that maximum 200 quintals of paddy will be procured. The objective of the government is to provide the benefit of MSP to small and medium farmers, not to give benefits to the traders. Last year, unlimited quantity of paddy was procured, so this time this decision has been taken. Senior state Congress leaders Alok Kumar Dubey, Lal Kishorenath Shahdeo and Dr. Rajesh Gupta Chhotu were also present on this occasion.