Rajamahendravaram: As N Chandrababu Naidu tours East Godavari, paddy procurement picks up

Rajamahendravaram (East Godavari district) : There has been a sudden movement in the administration in the wake of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s visit to the district.

The process of paddy procurement, which has been very sluggish so far, has picked up momentum in the last two days. The officials are lifting the wet and stained paddy in haste. Farmers are complaining that officials did not care to buy the damaged paddy despite their pleas that untimely rains drenched the fields. The process of paddy procurement which was scheduled to start on April 1, did not start until the 20. Gunny bags were also not given on time. Farmers begged the authorities to lift the stained produce but officials stalled giving one excuse or other.

The distress and financial losses of farmers have been ignored.

However, the situation suddenly changed when Chandrababu Naidu has toured the district for two days. It may be the fear that the farmers will approach the opposition leader or any other reason, officials have taken measures to shift the paddy on an emergency basis to Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs). Surprisingly, in some places officials and public representatives themselves are personally overseeing the loading of paddy bags into lorries and tractors.

For the last 20 days, the farmers have been complaining that no one has paid attention to their plight. Officials have been saying that gunny bags, lorries and tractors are not available for transport. But now RBK staff and volunteers are busy transporting the paddy. Higher officials and public representatives are also lifting the paddy in some places. A farmer from Kadiyam V Prasad said that if the paddy collection process had been done so quickly from the beginning, the produce would not have been damaged by rain and they would not have suffered losses.

TDP is closely monitoring these developments with party chief Chandrababu Naidu extended his visit to the district for two more days. Party leaders K S Jawahar, Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary and others said that by scheduling Naidu’s visit to the areas where paddy is left unprocured in large quantities, TDP hopes that it will benefit the farmers there.

The TDP leaders said that the ultimatum given by Chandrababu Naidu from Rajahmundry has jolted the state government prompting it to speed up paddy procurement overnight.

On Saturday, district collector Dr K Madhavi Latha, Anaparthi MLA Dr S Suryanarayana Reddy and others supervised the grain collection at Anaparthi. The collector said that because of the loss to farmers due to untimely rains, steps are being taken by the civil supplies department to purchase moist paddy not only online but also offline. Even if the humidity exceeds 17 per cent, the government has assured that the purchase will be done at the minimum support price.

In the wake of warning of further rains and even cyclone, the farmers appealed to the authorities to speed up shifting up their paddy to RBKs, she said, adding that the money will be deposited in the farmers’ account within 21 days of buying the grain, the collector added.