BJP Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao has written a letter to Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution System Piyush Goyal, urging him to take steps to investigate the “irregularities in paddy procurement and payments to the farmers in Andhra Pradesh.”
In the letter, Mr. Rao said there were many complaints from the paddy farmers from across Andhra Pradesh about “rampant malpractices” in procurement.
“Andhra Pradesh follows decentralised procurement system, and the State agencies undertake procurement operations. Unscrupulous middlemen, rice millers, corrupt officials and politicians have entered into a nexus, and have profited from paddy procurement operations. Further, the State government has not been paying the farmers for several months (three to six months) in most cases though it has been receiving funds in advance from the Central government. It is suspected that this advance fund from the Central government is being diverted for other purposes,” Mr. Rao said in the letter.
“I, therefore, request you to undertake an independent investigation into the malpractices and delayed payments by deputing a Central inter-Ministerial team for a preliminary assessment,” he said, adding, “The independent team assigned for the task must hold transparent public consultations with the paddy farmers in all the districts with proper public announcements in advance.”
“The Central government has been releasing as advance 90% of the funds required for paddy procurement operations to the government of Andhra Pradesh. The Central government has given ₹34,000 crores for the purpose in the last five years,” he said.
Mr. Rao urged the Centre to either directly pay the amounts into the bank accounts of the farmers (through DBT), or direct the State government to escrow account and transfer the funds to that account so that they cannot be diverted, he added.
