Paddy buy at DPCs stopped: Ryots

TIRUCHY: Condemning the lethargic attitude of officials, the Thanjavur farmers have been forced to wait for a long time with the paddy in front of the DPC.

Sources said, kuruvai cultivation was undertaken in an area of 1.93 lakh acre in Thanjavur and the harvest was under way in Buthalur, Vallam, Alalkudi, Ammapettai and Orathanadu areas.

But the harvest was stopped for the past few days due to continuous rains.

While the harvested stocks of paddy have been transported to the DPCs in the respective regions, officials stopped procuring paddy for the past few days without any intimation. So the farmers have been taking all steps to protect the paddy from gettting drenched.

While Deepavali is fast approaching, farmers from the region plan to sell the paddy somehow and get money to celebrate the festival.

But, officials were showing least interest to procure the paddy, the farmers have complained.

They urge officials to start procurement immediately.

“While we lost the maximum kuruvai this season due to water shortage, we struggled a lot to save the standing crops and thus we managed harvest the paddy with difficulty. But, the officials are cool to our problems and not helping us in procurement,” charged Kannan, Secretary Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam Thanjavur president.

He further said that farmers, who have brought the harvested paddy to the DPCs, have long been waiting for the resumption of the procurement process which was stopped abruptly without any intimation.

“For instance, there is only one DPC functioning in Buthalur and that too stopped procurement. This resulted in stagnation of paddy in areas like Buthalur, Kovilpathu and Sancheevipuram and it is time the government should instruct officials to resume the procurement and open adequate numbers of DPCs to help farmers of the region,” said Kannan.