Paddy procurement in Bihar scheduled to begin from next week could run into trouble with the primary agriculture credit societies (PACS) and Vayapar Mandals in Kaimur and Rohtas districts threatening to stop work if the state food corporation (SFC) and cooperative banks did clear a backlog of payment.
The SFC procures paddy and other food grains through PACS and Vyapar Mandals in the state.
The procurement agencies had not been paid the transportation cost, managerial grant and cost of gunny-bags for the last three procurement seasons and are facing financial crisis, Dadan Dwivedi, chairman, Kaimur PACS association said.
A representation of PACS, led by Dwivedi, met the district magistrate on Wednesday and submitted a memorandum demanding payment of a pending amount of Rs 21 crore. They warned that if the dues are not cleared, they would boycott paddy procurement in the district.
The memorandum said that the SFC has to pay Rs 12.41 crore for transportation cost of milled rice in addition to Rs 3.24 crore as managerial subsidy and over Rs 5.37 crore as cost of gunny bags. The SFC had to pay a total amount of over Rs 21 crore to 151 Kaimur PACS and five Vyapar Mandals for procurement years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The SFC owes Rs 23 cr to 243 PACS and 18 Vyapar Mandals in Rohtas district for the three consecutive procurement seasons. The situation is similar in almost all paddy growing districts in the state, Sanjay Singh, chairman, Rohtas PACS association said.
The state government gives the procurement agencies the cost of transporting milled rice to SFC collection centres as well as Rs 10 per quintal managerial grant after milling one quintal of paddy and depositing the rice at collections centers. The government gives Rs 25 per quintal cost for gunny bags to the agency which is paid to farmers who brought paddy in gunny bags.
“The cooperative banks give the agency cash credit for payment of paddy, gunny bags and transportation to farmers and transporters. The agencies return the money to cooperative banks after the amount is paid to them by SFC.
“As the SFC did not pay our dues, the PACS and Vyapar Mandals have been declared defaulter by the banks. The interest on the credit is also increasing and PACS are running in loss”, Dwivedi said.
Santosh Kumar, SFC district manager, Kaimur, said that he had informed state headquarters about the dues and problem of procurement agencies. The matter would be resolved and procurement would be started in time, he said.
“in previous years, the government paddy procurement exercise used to start on November 15. But it was yet to begin for procurement season 2020-21. Is it not a gross negligence on the part of the government who did not solve the issues in time and left it for peak season”, Ravi Shankar Agrawal, a leading farmer said.
