Hundreds of farmers in Palakkad district are facing an acute financial crisis as the government has not yet paid them for the paddy procured three months ago. The Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco), which procured the paddy, is to pay about ₹90 crore to the farmers in Palakkad.
Particularly affected are marginal and small farmers who cultivate paddy in one or two acres. Repeated pleas of the farmers through different organisations have fallen on deaf ears. With the State Budget presented by Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal on Friday totally ignoring the paddy sector, the farmers in the district are now furious.
The National Farmers Protection Committee (NFPC) is convening a meeting on Monday to discuss the further course of action. “The situation is too bad especially for the small farmers. They are not in a position to manage the second crop. Many of them are already in the red,” said Pandiyod Prabhakaran, NFPC general secretary.
The Karshaka Congress district committee is planning a day-night protest against the government’s neglect of paddy farmers in Palakkad on Wednesday. The agitation will begin at 11 a.m. on Wednesday and conclude at 11 a.m. the next day at Anjuvilakku Junction here.
B. Ikbal, Karshaka Congress district president, said that the government had totally neglected the paddy farmers. Even when throwing the farmers into debt, the government did not heed to the demand to raise the paddy procurement price from ₹28.20 to ₹35, he said.
“The farmers have been demanding for a budgetary allocation for paddy procurement. Only through a budgetary allocation can the farmers be saved from their misery. If the government makes an allocation, then the farmers can be paid as soon as the paddy is procured,” said Mr. Ikbal.
Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala will inaugurate the agitation on Wednesday morning. District Congress Committee president A. Thankappan will deliver the keynote address.
The Desiya Karshaka Samajam too has expressed anguish at the government’s attitude to the farmers. Muthalamthodu Mani, Samajam general secretary, said that no other sector had been ignored so callously by the government as the paddy farmers.
Apart from not raising the paddy procurement price, the government ignored the paddy sector by not allocating anything for it, he said. “The government also ignored the demand for raising the farmers’ pension. Farmers are drawing the lowest pension of ₹1,600 in the country,” said Mr. Mani.
