Frustrated with the alleged corruption at toor procurement centres, Gururaj Gaded, a toor farmer of Devarahipparagi village, vent his ire by dumping bags of toor on the road at Ambedkar Circle in the city on Thursday.
Mr. Gaded, who had brought 67 quintals of toor, said the staff employed at procurement centres have been demanding bribes of ₹300 a quintal to get the commodity registered for procurement. “This is an open secret... every farmer who comes to the procurement centre is facing harassment from the staff. The farmers who refuse to pay are harassed. The staff don’t register their names in the list or make them wait for hours. The poor farmers have no choice but to pay up,” he said.
He said that despite bringing this matter to the notice of officials of the APMC and the district administration, and submitting a written complaint, officials have given only oral assurance and have not taken any action on the ground,” he said. “First we farmers have to spend months cultivating the crop, facing all the vagaries of nature. When harvesting is over, farmers have to face another type of problem in selling the produce in the market,” Mr. Gaded said.
Several other farmers joined him in protesting against the alleged corruption and demanding action against the staff.
M.D. Chabanur, the nodal officer of toor procurement centres in the district, arrived at the spot and claimed that based on the complaint, action has been taken against the erring staff at different procurement centres. “We have already cancelled the centre at Golgeri village for corruption. Notices have been served to five other centres in the district. We will surely take action if we find any illegality such as staff demanding bribe for registering the names of farmers,” he said.
He said the district has 92 procurement centres where 78,607 farmers have registered. Toor worth ₹430 crore has been procured, and ₹44 crore payment has been made to the farmers. “ We will clear the pending bills soon as we are expecting funds from the government,” he said. He informed that the government was procuring toor at ₹6,000 a quintal while the market price was ₹4,800.
