The government might have opened red gram procurement centres for protecting growers hit by the fall in prices. But, the centres in Kalaburagi, one of the major red-gram growing districts in the country, appear to be defeating the purpose by showing more interest in purchasing the crop from traders than growers.
On visiting the procurement centres established at the Kalaburagi Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee yard on Friday, this reporter found growers struggling to sell their crop on the one hand and sacks belonging to traders making an easy entry into the centres on the other.
Sharanu Siddanna Hadagil, a grower from Hunasi Hadagil village, who had registered with the centre on January 10, was asked to bring the crop on March 3. In desperation, he sold his 20 bags of red gram to a private trader at ₹4,500 a quintal against the minimum support price of ₹5,500 offered at procurement centres. Mahalingappa Patil Here Gowda, a grower from Venkatabennur village, was asked to bring the crop on February 19.
On the other hand, a number of red gram bags, apparently belonging to a trader, were being weighed and procured without documents. The officer at the centre was tight-lipped when asked about the owner of the bags and the documents.
Deliberate delay
Growers alleged that the officials at the procurement centres were “deliberately” delaying the procurement of the crop from growers, forcing them to sell their crop to private traders. They alleged that the officers were accepting produce from traders for a commission of ₹200 a quintal.
“These centres had stopped purchasing the crop from growers for two days showing an alibi of shortage of empty bags. The reality is that around 7,000 of 20,000 empty bags with National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. were secretly given to traders who fill their crop purchased from growers at undisclosed locations and supply them to procurement centres,” Maruti Manpade, farmers’ leader, said.
D.C. Satish, Director, Karnataka State Co-operative Marketing Federation, which has opened a procurement centre, said that he would deploy more staff from Monday to ensure that there were no irregularities in procurement. “I will take action if complaints are filed. I have warned the officials of criminal cases if they are involved in irregularities. I have requested the Deputy Commissioner and the APMC to form a squad for transparent procurement,” he said.
