Farmers vent ire with paddy in their hands

The collector and other officials present at the meeting were taken aback by the act of farmers who had initially complained about the procurement centres and then suddenly started throwing the grain on the floor and on the table. 

Officials tried to pacify them but in vain. They told the collector that the paddy was not being accepted by the procurement centres and the farmers were being told that it was of inferior quality. “When the paddy seeds are bought from the agricultural department, how come the plants turn inferior? 

And if the produce is inferior the seeds must also be of inferior quality,” the farmers argued with the collector. The collector promised to look into their complaint and said that it was illegal to throw paddy on the floor. The farmers replied that tonnes of paddy were getting wasted in the procurement centres as they had been dumped on the floor. If action was to be taken against them, stringent action should also be taken against the government officials. The collect kept quiet and did not react to the farmers’ contention. 

The farmers who came out demanded the district administration to instruct the procurement centres to procure the paddy harvested by them. A farmer, Paapu, claimed that paddy was cultivated in more than 2,000 acres of land and in the first phase 500 acres of paddy had been harvested. Because the procurement centres do not buy the paddy, the stock was lying in their houses for more than 15 days. If the situation continued all the paddy would get wasted. Hence the procurement centres should buy their paddy stock, Paapu demanded.