Like every year, this year, too, the farmers of Sant Kabir Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh came to sell their paddy to the designated centres. However, on arrival, they were in for a surprise! They were welcomed at the purchase centres with garlands and sweets.
Quite a welcome change, considering every year, the season of paddy procurement is filled with complaints from farmers of almost all the districts of UP about the hassles they face at the centres. This time, at least in the Sant Kabir Nagar centres, there were more reasons to praise than complain as the centre in-charges were not only buying the paddy of the farmers in the proper way, but were seen guiding them also.
This change has been brought about by the new DM of the district, 2014-batch IAS officer Prem Ranjan Singh, with his many initiatives on paddy procurement, so that more and more farmers of the district get the benefit of the support price scheme and their paddy get good prices. He strictly monitors the whole process, doing Zoom meetings with all the centre in-charges at 9 am on every working day. No wonder the district ranks first in its division in paddy procurement. Indian Masterminds interacted with Mr. Singh to get more details about the same.
STRICT MONITORING
Strict monitoring has been the focus of Mr. Singh right from the beginning. He started morning meetings with the centre in-charges about a month ago. First offline meetings were held, later they shifted to zoom. At 9 am sharp, all the 64 centre in-charges and officers associated with the process get together with the DM on a zoom meeting. If any farmer is present at that time, the centre in-charge makes him talk to the team as well.
“We are doing this every day and it has solved many of our problems. The good thing is the centres open early nowadays as the in-charges come on time to attend the meeting at 9 am,” Mr. Singh said.
BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
Another thing that the officer paid special attention to was in getting a behavioral change in all the staff. “We had explained to all the paddy centre in-charges that no one should show irritation while dealing with the farmers. Even if any farmer is angry, or he says something offending to our staff, no one should talk to him back in an offending manner. We have also made arrangements for water at all the centres for the visiting farmers,” he said.
To prevent over crowding at the centre, the farmers are given a token along with a date. However, if anyone of them insists on same-day purchase, then they try to buy his paddy on that day itself, and if it is not possible, they bring it to the notice of the district administration, who then takes over.
ZERO REJECTION POLICY
The district administrative has also made a zero rejection policy for paddy procurement this season. Moisture in paddy is the biggest problem that most of the centres face. But, here, things are different.
M. Singh said, “Ours is a zero rejection policy. So, if a farmer brings paddy with a lot of moisture, instead of refusing to buy his paddy, we tell him how to remove the moisture. He has to be helped in every possible way, including educating him about the ways to remove the dampness. Then, when the moisture goes away, we call him and buy his paddy. But, till then, we stay in touch with that farmer. The implementation of this system has been very beneficial for us.”
Those who want to sell paddy, but have not been registered due to some reason, can register on the portal of the Food Department and sell their paddy on a given date. The DM has also issued a warning to all the centres not to return any paddy of the registered farmers.
LEAVE CANCELLATION
Apart from this, no in-charge is allowed to go on leave during the paddy procurement season, other than in cases of emergency. Along with this, the SDMs and CDOs have been asked to do random checking. “All SDMs check 5 centres randomly. One centre is monitored directly by the DM himself.
STOPPING COMMMISSION
Lastly, to curb corruption in paddy procurement, steps have been taken to stop commission. Mr. Singh said, “We had also got it published in the newspapers and also sent video bites for electornic media, where we have put out that for any complaint about commission at any centre, the farmer can come and contact me directly.”
IMPACT
As a result of this strict monitoring, there has been no complaint for the last one month. Also, no farmer is going back from the centre without selling his paddy.
“Recently, I got a call from Principal Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies Ministry, Ms. Veena Kumari Meena. She asked me how the work was going on here. After I informed her, she has now decided to implement this system in other districts of the state as well, especially the morning zoom meeting, where everyone has to send their live location,” Mr. Singh said.
PRICE
Last year, price was Rs 1,940 per quintal of paddy, whereas this year, the support price of paddy has been increased by Rs 100 per quintal to Rs 2,040. From November 1 to February 28, 2023, this district has a target of 98,300 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy procurement from the government. In this, the Food Department has got a target of 49 thousand MT, PCF 30,500 MT, Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Union 18 thousand and Food Corporation of India 800 MT.
In Sant Kabir Nagar district alone, more than 2000 metric tones paddy has been bought this season.
