Anbumani Ramadoss has alleged that 6 lakh sacks of paddy are going to waste without being procured in the Cauvery irrigation districts. In a statement issued by him in this regard, he said, ``6 lakh sacks of paddy are piled up in the Cauvery irrigation districts. Action must be taken to rectify the shortcomings and procure paddy immediately! Reports have emerged that more than 6 lakh sacks of paddy are lying piled up without being procured at paddy procurement centers in Cauvery irrigation districts including Thanjavur and Tiruvarur. It is condemnable to make farmers run around without procuring the paddy sacks they have cultivated with great effort at the proper time.
In Tiruvarur district alone, 3 lakh paddy bags, and another 3 lakh bags in other irrigated districts including Thanjavur, Mayiladuthurai, and Nagapattinam, are lying unsold and piled up. As a result, farmers who have harvested paddy are forced to wait day and night at procurement centers with their paddy bags. The reasons for the accumulation of paddy bags include the fact that the paddy bags procured at procurement centers are not being transported from there to warehouses, and that there are not enough loading workers at the procurement centers.
With the Meteorological Department warning that it will rain in the Cauvery irrigation districts over the next few days, farmers will suffer huge losses if paddy bags are not procured immediately. The government should not allow such a situation to arise. The Tamil Nadu government should have made arrangements to transport the paddy bags arriving at procurement centers promptly to warehouses and milling facilities. However, as in previous years, the lack of adequate warehouse facilities this year too, and the failure to remove paddy bags promptly, have affected paddy procurement.
The wages paid to the load-carrying workers engaged in purchasing and stacking paddy sacks are very low, so an adequate number of load-carrying workers do not come to work. Since only 30% of the load-carrying workers report for duty at each procurement center, instead of 900 to 1,000 sacks being procured every day, only 300 to 400 sacks of paddy are being purchased. The Kuruvai harvest has only just begun in the Cauvery-irrigated districts.
As the harvest intensifies in the coming days, a situation will arise where many times more paddy sacks will pile up at procurement centers. To change this situation, the shortage of warehouses and loading workers must be addressed. Steps should be taken to procure immediately the paddy sacks brought by farmers to the procurement centers," he noted.