Farmers Movement Archive

UP: Paddy sale at 3,000 govt feds, vigil on pvt players

LUCKNOW: Amid mounting Opposition criticism over farm bills, the UP government has been swift off the blocks to roll out the template for kharif crop procurement to allay farmers’ fears of a private stranglehold on their produce. The new policy envisages purchase of paddy through as many as 3,000 centres with a maximum of 1,250 centres to be opened by UP Cooperative Federation followed by 900 centres by marketing branches of food and supplies department. The draft policy document of September 23 states that procurement would begin from October 1. While common category paddy would be procured at Rs 1,868 per quintal, grade-A paddy would be purchased at Rs 1,888 per quintal. The procurement process in Hardoi, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bareilly, Moradabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Agra, Aligarh and Jhansi districts would be launched between October 1 and January 31, 2021. Likewise, procurement of kharif crop in districts of Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Unnao and in administrative divisions of Chitrakoot, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Devipatan, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Prayagraj, would start from November 1 till February 28, 2021. The draft policy states procurement centres would remain open between 9 am and 5 pm. However, the district administration will have the authority to extend or curtail timings. The centres would remain open throughout the procurement period, except on Sunday and gazetted public holidays. The state government has also allowed food and civil supplies department to add or remove any centre/agency from procuring paddy. Food produce organisations will also be able to get themselves associated with other procurement agencies and buy paddy. The state government has categorically laid down the condition that Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmers’ Producer Companies (FPCs) engaged in procurement of kharif crop should be financially sound. The agencies which caused losses to state coffers or agency officials against whom FIRs have been lodged will not participate in the procurement process. The state government has also decided to geo-tag paddy procurement centres to enable information flow on mobile purchase centres.

The Times of India

2020-09-25

Lucknow