Bhubaneswar: With the beginning of Kharif crop season, the State Government has started preparation for procurement of surplus paddy from farmers well in advance.
In this regard, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Principal Secretary Vir Vikram Yadav has written a letter to all District Collectors on Saturday.
Principal Secretary Shri Yadav asked the Collectors to start an online farmers’ registration process from July 15 to complete all activities well in time.
For this year’s Kharif, it has been decided that all farmers willing to sell their paddy have to be registered afresh. No renewal is allowed and farmers have to provide all details personal, field/bank related information again, Shri Yadav said.
Like past several years, Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) will procure the surplus paddy of farmers through cooperative societies, women SHGs and Pani Panchayats by way of payment of Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Actual procurement of paddy (Kharif Crop) will start from the first week of November in the State and close on March 31, 2024. All 30 districts will conduct farmer registration for procurement of paddy (Kharif crop) within the deadline and will schedule their procurement activities within the fixed timelines.
All the farmers who wish to deliver their surplus paddy to the Government at MSP during the ensuing Kharif season are required to register with their nearest societies. Prior registration is a mandatory process, he said.
All farmers will have to fill up a Farmer Register Form. “Anybody who submits fraudulent data and any official who facilitates the use of such data will be debarred from the procurement process and suitably dealt with as per law,” warned the Principal Secretary.
The Department has decided to set up a help desk in each society to guide applicant farmers to fill in the forms.
Farmers have to submit the filled-in form along with the copies of ‘RoR’, the first page of the Bank Passbook and copy of his/her Aadhaar card at the society office between July 15 to August 16, 2023.
A farmer will also have to submit his (or a family member’s) mobile phone number which will be a mandatory requirement. All registration forms with invalid Aadhaar numbers will not be considered for inclusion in the list of eligible farmers, he pointed out.
While filling up the Registration Form, a farmer has to mention the extent of the area of a plot actually utilized for the cultivation of paddy in the ongoing Kharif. This has to be truthfully furnished.
A sharecropper (Bhaga Chasi) is required to obtain a consent letter from the landholder and deposit it along with the Registration form. The sharecropper has to submit a mobile number and a copy of the Aadhaar card of his landowner. There will be no other way for a sharecropper to apply for registration except by way of the landowner’s consent.
Collectors will take timely steps to find out on the basis of inquiry by verifying officers/teams, the actual extent of area cultivated by registered farmers irrespective of their claims.
The district administrations have been asked to adopt various mechanisms to find out the veracity of claims with regard to the total area cultivated by farmers and where it is found that inflated claims have been made, farmers concerned will be debarred to sell paddy to the Government.
The officials who facilitate the entry of inflated claims will also be held accountable for such lapses.
A farmer should be registered in the society where his/her land is available irrespective of the actual area of residence in a district.
The Secretary of the Society will have to check the correctness of the entries in the registration form with a copy of RoR, Aadhar card, Bank Passbook, and consent letter of the landowner (in case of sharecropper). Secretary will satisfy himself/herself that the applicant farmer has indeed taken up cultivation on the land cited for sale of paddy and he is rightfully related to the recorded tenant(s) as claimed by the applicant.
The Secretary will be held responsible if the applicant’s inflated claims are taken into consideration during the registration process.
Yadav warned the Collectors not to enter non-cultivable land, highlands in the system. If a high land is taken into consideration, such cases must be enquired by a joint team.
All data provided by the farmers will be digitized and will be linked with Bhulekh application to check the land details.
Wherever lands are claimed to be irrigated by bore well point, the farmer has to quote the electricity consumer number for the same in the specified field in the application form if electrified.
Revenue authorities will inspect new plots (which are not available in Bhulekh).
This Kharif season, the Government has decided that all plots registered in the “Farmer Registration Module“ will be verified through the satellite imagery for all 30 districts of the State, the way it was done for the 17 Rabi paddy procuring districts in the KMS 2022-23 (Rabi crop).
The satellite survey data on the suspected plots will be shared with the DRCS/ARCS for further validation at their level through ORSAC land survey mobile application and portal.
Society officials and supervisory officers shall be trained in the modalities of the registration process within the timelines prescribed.
Further the Principal Secretary Shri Yadav made it clear that the Deputy/Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies will be responsible for the quality of registration work in their jurisdictional areas.
