The Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) is all set to introduce an online paddy receipt sheet system for the procurement of paddy from the second crop season onwards.
The move is aimed at preventing delays that occur during the processing of payments due to farmers.
As part of the computerisation, Supplyco will incorporate the use of GPRS-enabled electronic devices for the issue of the receipt sheet. The mill agents will be able to enter the details of the farmers, including their allotted registration number and other related information regarding the paddy procured, directly into the machine. A token receipt will be issued soon after the details have been entered and the collected data will be transmitted to a database.
Online formA.V. Suresh Kumar, Paddy Marketing Officer, Monkombu, said the collected details would have to be verified by the Krishi Bhavan concerned, following which these would be forwarded to the Paddy Marketing Officer for initiating payments to the bank accounts of the farmers. The farmers would also be required to fill an online form for the completion of the process.
Mr. Kumar said the decision to switch over to the computerised system was made on the basis of numerous complaints of delays in disbursing the payments. The current system involved the tedious task of preparing quadruplicate copies of the paddy receipt sheet. Farmers were also required to submit the sheet to the Paddy Marketing Officer along with a 100-gm sample of the paddy for the payment. Although a deadline of 20 days had been set for completing the payment, delays often crept in owing to various technicalities involving bank accounts, among others, Mr. Kumar said.