Pipariya (Madhya Pradesh): Two months have passed since 70 farmers sold wheat on minimum support price to a society, but they are still waiting payment.
Although they are moving from pillar to post for payment, the officials concerned are barely paying attention to their plea. The farmers sold their produce to Vipanan Evam Prakriya Cooperative Marketing Society.
Farmers said they had expected payment and use it to sow the seeds of Moong (green grams). They further said since they did not get payment, they had to borrow money from different sources to sow the seeds of Moong.
The farmers, visiting the office of the society, do not get any response from the officials there. The society procured wheat at Shrikrishna Warehouse and kept it in the open. As a result, a huge quantity of wheat was wet because of unseasonal rain.
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Since the officials of the food and civil supplies department rejected the wet wheat, its approval receipt could not be prepared, and the payment was not made to the society.
The farmers said they were suffering because of the dispute between the civil supplies department and the society. They also said when they sold the wheat it was in a good condition, and it got spoilt, because the society kept it in the open.
Manager of the society Vinod Kumar Soni said the wheat got wet because of the unseasonal rain, and the officials rejected it. The warehouse also did not store it properly.
The society got 50,000 bags of wheat graded and kept in the warehouse, he said. A receipt of the product could not be prepared, Soni said, adding that the portal was also closed because of a fire at Satpura Bhawan in Bhopal.
Soni further said 4,795 quintals of wheat could not be deposited, for which the farmers will have to be paid Rs 1.18 crore. According to Soni, a few farmers, whose produce was wet, had been given payment offline.
Officials of the civil supplies department said the portal would soon be restored and the payment made to the farmers after preparing all the documents.
Although the farmers are moving from pillar to post for payment, their leaders are keeping mum. Even the political parties, like the AAP and the Congress, which always raise farmers’ problems, are keeping away from the issue.
