Ryots irked as NCCF will buy paddy in non-Delta districts

RANIPET: Farmers here are in a bind following the revelation that the state government has appointed National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India (NCCF) to procure paddy in all the non-Delta districts, sources revealed.

Vellore TN Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) officials were at a loss to explain how and why this system was adopted other than to state that the entire process would be overseen by them.

What has annoyed farmers is that though the district administration announced that 34 DPCs would be opened in Ranipet district from September 5, none of them has been opened till date.

The news about NCCF taking over procurement added to their ire. They raised doubts, “whether paddy would be procured from farmers at the notified DPCs or whether NCCF would appoint agents to procure paddy directly from farmers at their farms which would mean that the procured paddy would be offloaded to traders, who would then indirectly send them to the DPCs to earn a tidy profit,” said Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam youth wing state president R Subash.

Sangam’s Ranipet district president CS Mani wanted to know why an agency was appointed to procure paddy if they were to follow the TNCSC procurement method.

When DT Next asked TNCSC Vellore regional manager Raja, the latter said, “the delay in opening DPCs was due to rain and the need to send machinery (mainly winnowing machines) to individual DPCs. DPCs staff have been provided with tabs to calculate amounts due to individual farmers and procurement would start from Friday.”

With farmers already having stocks of harvested sornavari paddy, delays in procurement would push them to sell paddy to private traders who form cartels to ensure that prices are controlled by them.

“This does not augur well for farmers as we have been repeatedly clamoring for the government to treat all paddy farmers the same way,” said Sangam’s state general secretary S Udayakumar.