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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Suicide blame on paddy

Suicide blame on paddy

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published Published on Jan 15, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 15, 2012

-The Telegraph

 

A farmer in his mid-thirties killed himself in a Burdwan village early this morning, a mountain of debt driving him under after he was apparently forced to sell paddy to middlemen at a lower price.

Tapas Majhi’s suicide comes at a time three Bengal agencies tasked with procuring paddy directly from farmers and mill owners have been able to meet just 10 per cent of their target because of lack of funds and inadequate procurement centres.

Hours after the 35-year-old hanged himself, Union food secretary Bhushan Chander Gupta met officials of the state food and supplies department to discuss ways to speed up procurement. Among the suggestions Gupta made was involving primary agriculture credit co-operative societies (PACCS) to expedite the process. (See chart)

Villagers in Chandipur, where Tapas lived, said he went to a neighbouring village early today and hanged himself from a tree.

A 25-cottah land was the main source of income for his family of four.

Elder brother Gadadhar said Tapas had been forced to take a loan to buy seeds and fertilisers. “Even then he couldn’t farm the entire plot that he owned. Some days back he told me he had run up around Rs 30,000 in debt.”

Tapas’s suicide was the seventh by a Bengal farmer since 2011, six of them in Burdwan, the state’s rice bowl.

Gadadhar said his brother was “forced to sell” paddy to “middlemen at a lower price as the government is not procuring paddy. Even if he had got the minimum support price, he would have got a little more money.”

According to officials in the food and supplies department, the state has managed to procure just 2 lakh tonnes of paddy, though the target is 20 lakh tonnes till September.

Several months are left before September but the real test will come sooner, in February-March — the peak procurement season. If the procurement volumes do not swell by then, agrarian Bengal will be staring at a crisis.

“The state government depends on agencies like Benfed, Confed and ECSC (Essential Commodities Supply Corporation) to achieve the procurement target. As these agencies failed to set up procurement centres in remote pockets because of lack of funds, the state could only procure 10 per cent of its target. If the PACCS were involved, the process could have gained momentum,” one official said.

Trinamul leader and industries minister Partha Chatterjee denied any link between the suicide and the low procurement volume. “We have made enquiries. He committed suicide because of family problems. This has nothing to do with farming,” Chatterjee said.

Chief secretary Samar Ghosh said no report had linked the farmer suicides to debts. “We have received some reports but in none of the cases the cause has been attributed to these factors,” Ghosh said at Writers’ Buildings.

But Ghosh admitted that Benfed and Confed could not start the procurement process on time because of lack of funds. To meet its procurement target, the state requires around Rs 840 crore — part of which will be borne by the Food Corporation of India — but only about Rs 60 crore has been allotted so far.

Of the 20 lakh tonnes of paddy, 9 lakh tonnes will be procured directly from farmers. The rest will be collected as rice from mills, mostly by the FCI.

At his meeting with the officials, the Union food secretary suggested involving the primary farm credit societies. “I have suggested that PACCS should be involved in the entire procurement process as almost every village in Bengal has such societies. If the PACCS are involved, farmers can sell their produce in their village itself,” Gupta said.

“The PACCS can be given 2.5 per cent commission for procuring paddy on behalf of the state government. The model has been successfully implemented in Punjab and Haryana.”

Senior officials said only 500 of the 27,000-odd PACCS in the state had been involved in the procurement process so far.

The Telegraph, 15 January, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120115/jsp/nation/story_15008212.jsp


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