DPCs let down Delta ryots despite nature’s bounty

The samba harvest is at its peak in the Cauvery Delta region and government officials mention farmers here reaping a bountiful this season, so much that Direct Procurement Centres (DPC) have recorded an increase by nearly half in the daily paddy supply.

While accommodative steps like an increase in maximum daily procurement limit at DPCs have been brought, the absence of adequate infrastructural facilities and alleged continued irregularities by employees have, however, left farmers in a lurch, making sacks of paddy pile up in open areas and ultimately, the decaying of the crop.

With the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) nominated as the agency to procure paddy in the State under the Decentralised Procurement Scheme on behalf of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), as many as 1,472 DPCs have been opened across Tamil Nadu. According to a senior TNCSC official, each DPC normally receives between 7,000 and 8,000 bags of harvested crop per day. However, this season, the farmers have reaped a good harvest, that they carry around 10,000 to 12,000 bags per day to the procurement centres. Witnessing the trend in the ongoing samba season in the Delta belt, the State government had instructed each Direct Procurement Centre to procure at least 1,000 bags per day from the earlier 800 in a bid to expedite the process. However, due to various reasons, including the alleged rampant bribery by DPC employees, a hassle free procurement has eluded the farmers in the region.

The selling of their paddy crop has been hit that many of the centres reportedly procures less than 800 bags a day.

Although farmers had their hopes raised by claims of surprise raids by special teams at the DPCs, them piling up the paddy and waiting for their turn for several days only continues. According to sources, at least 2 lakh tonnes of paddy lies accumulated in front of DPCs now. Farmers now fear that the paddy would lose weight as the crop is exposed to the elements. This could lead to a loss of at least 2.50 kg in each bag of paddy, they said. Worse, they fear that it would lead to the decay of the entire crop, leaving the farmers with few options but to bear the entire loss.

According to famers, the major problem faced by them is, however, the need to grease the palms of the procurement staff at the DPCs. They claimed that the staff quoting their low pay deduct a minimum amount of Rs 40 per bag before paying the farmer the due amount for their stock.

With the farmers already frustrated by problems occurring from the vagaries of nature, the rising costs of input, the non-availability of institutional finance, friction between them and the procurement staff only seems to be expected.

Following the directions of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Food Corporation of India had even instructed the procurement agencies to pay the farmers via the Electronic Clearance System (ECS). The problems, however, remain unsolved, the farmers claimed.

Swamimalai Sundara Vimalnathan, secretary of the Thanjavur District Cauvery Farmers Protection Association, said that the long-pending demand of farmers for ECS has been acceded to, but added that the collection of Rs 40 and two kilograms of paddy per bag continues. This leads to eruption of unnecessary arguments between the farmers and the DPC staff, he said.

Another issue plaguing effective crop procurement is inadequate infrastructure. Though the State government has opened 1,472 DPCs so far, more than 50 per cent of the centres are reportedly functioning out of rented buildings and out of rented land where the system of cover and plinth (CAP) storage system is adopted. Some of the rented buildings are found to not withstand heavy rains, with procurement staff used to the practice of covering the storage area with tarpaulin sheets.

According to Sami Natarajan, the district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association (of the All India Kisan Sabha), there is a need to build more number of DPCs and also to augment the capacity of the existing permanent DPCs with more concrete floors, besides fencing to bar cattle from entering the centre.

Besides the DPCs, TNCSC officials rent out warehouses of the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to store the procured paddy before sending the crop bags away to hulling agents throughout the State. However, with the advent of harvesting machines, the crop process over vast areas is almost being done simultaneously, resulting in heavy arrivals at DPCs. This makes procurement and storage an issue.

The problems over effective procurement and storage do not seem to end there. S Chandrakumar, general secretary of the TNCSC Workers Union (of the AITUC), said that with a restriction to hiring lorries only from the districts concerned to move the procured paddy from the Direct Procurement Centres to the CAP storage or railway heads to load into the wagons, a glut of paddy bags in the DPCs poses difficulty to staff and farmers.

Workers claim that the lorry drivers demand ‘tips’ ranging anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 and that the drivers are very particular in loading up paddy from the place where they get higher ‘tips’. This results in stagnation of paddy in the open areas in front of DPCs, they said.

An official, while citing the procurement centres receiving a heavy inflow than the norm and transportation issues as reasons for paddy getting accumulated in the DPCs itself, said that they are, however, keeping a close watch in the operations of the centres.