TIRUCHY: The Delta farmers have expressed their shock that their harvested paddy has been piled up in every Direct Procurement Centre (DPC) after failing to obtain the ‘adangal’ certificate (a legal proof of land possession) by revenue department who have been under indefinite strike and they fear that the paddy might damage due to delay in procurement effected out of their protest and demand the state government to find a valuable solution.
Samba and Thalady have been cultivated in more than 13 lakh acres across the delta region, and the harvest has commenced in most of the areas in the region. Official sources said that more than 60 per cent of the harvest has been covered across the region, and the harvester machines from other regions have been brought to accelerate the harvest and are expected to complete the entire region in a couple of weeks. As per the requirement, the TNCSC has opened around 1,300 DPCs and more to open in the coming days.
As per the norms, the adangal certificate by VAO is mandatory for the sale of harvested paddy in the DPCs, and the farmer needs to submit the OTP to the VAO for the payment process after the sale of paddy.
In such a scenario, the VAOs have commenced their indefinite strike from February 25 for their demands, which affected the issuance of the Adangal certificate that had struck the procurement process across the region.
The farmers appealed that the state government should find an alternative for procurement; otherwise, the situation on par with kuruvai procurement, which damaged the harvested paddy due to the delay in procurement.
“We have already submitted the required documents for the Adangal certificate with the respective VAOs and we possess the receipt for it, and it would be better if the procurement takes place with that receipt so that the piling up of paddy could be avoided”, V Jeevakumar, a farmer and farmer rights activist from Thanjavur, said.