Direct purchase of farm produce by govt: Petitioner told to approach grievance panel

The submission was made before a division bench comprising Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, hearing a plea moved by advocate G Rajesh, raising grievance about the direct procurement of vegetables and other perishable farm produce directly from the farmers at taluk level itself, by the State.

However, the bench on recording the same cited the additional affidavit filed by the petitioner that grievances in the far-flung corners of the State still remains. In response, Additional Advocate General G Rajagopal submitted that the farmers who are aggrieved may approach the Grievances Redressal Mechanism concerned available at the district level and their grievances will be looked into. Based on this, the bench on holding that the petitioner would be well advised to approach the Grievances Committed concerned at the district level for redressal of the grievances if  any, said “If such grievances are not attended to by the committee concerned, the petitioners may file additional affidavit with the relevant documents and evidence on the next date of hearing, to which the State may respond by filing proper counter.” The bench then posted the plea for further hearing to May 26. The Tamil Nadu Government had submitted that following the lockdown 6,000 MT of fruits and vegetables procured directly were sold through 10,100 mobile vehicles daily to consumers in TN.