Bid to sell other district paddy in Thanjai DPC foiled

Sources said that farmers from Delta region have been complaining that traders from other districts in collusion with officials transported and sold paddy to DPCs in Delta districts and this has been resulting in accumulation of paddy of local farmers who were being forced to wait for several days facing threat of damage to their produce.

In the wake of several complaints of such malpractices from Thanjavur farmers, DSP Nallu, on the instructions of Civil Supplies CID SP Baskaran, formed a special team led by Inspector Kottaisamy to monitor ilegal transportation of paddy. On Thursday night, the team while conducting vehicle checks at Sengipatti in Thanjavur, found three lorries carrying paddy weighing around 12 tonnes, 14.40 tonnes and 17.36 tonnes respectively. The vehicles did not have proper documents and were reportedly coming from Cuddalore. Subsequently, the team seized all the three lorries along with the paddy loads.

Upon inquiry, the team found that traders from other districts had procured paddy from various places at a lower price and sent them to the DPCs in Delta districts to be sold at a higher price. It is said that the procurement price in Delta region was Rs 1,800 per quintal while it was just Rs 1,300 per quintal in other districts.

Police later arrested the three drivers, who were identified as P Palpandi (48) of Nilakkottai in Dindigul district, N Ravichandran (49) of Thanjavur and G Kumar (44) of Kallakurichi.