Online Paddy Booking Service Launched to Enhance Transparency in Procurement

Providing additional facilities to farmers in paddy procurement, online advance booking service has been started for paddy sale. Interested farmers can book by entering the quantity of paddy they can sell and the desired date by visiting the e-cooperative portal of the Cooperative Department. The quantity and date of sale of such booking will be displayed in the login of the concerned committee (PACS/Vyapar Mandal), concerned Cooperative Extension Officer, Assistant Registrar Cooperative Societies and District Cooperative Officer so that PACS can purchase paddy from the farmer on that date.

This facility will prove to be a milestone in making the procurement process more transparent. Through this process, the Cooperative Department will help in monitoring the procurement and also, complaints of non-purchase of paddy by PACS will be curbed. To assist in this work, a control room has been set up at the department level. Its number is 0612-220693. In case of any problem, the farmer can call on these numbers and take help.

While reviewing the paddy procurement, Dr. Prem Kumar, Hon'ble Minister, Cooperative Department, gave strict instructions to provide the price of the paddy purchased to the farmers within 48 hours. During the review, it was found that the percentage of payment to farmers in districts like Buxar, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, East and West Champaran, Saharsa, Saran etc. is very low. The Hon'ble Minister directed that the problem being faced in payment to farmers should be resolved immediately and timely payment should be ensured. So far, against the target of 45 lakh tonnes, 2.16 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured. Due to which 26455 farmers have benefited, out of which 16907 farmers have been paid. During the review, it was told that after the completion of PACS elections, there has been a boom in the purchase of paddy and in the last 5 days, about 95 thousand tonnes have been purchased. Therefore, the payment of farmers is under process and soon all the farmers will be paid. This year 6671 committees have been selected for procurement, out of which 5035 committees are active till now whereas last year a total of 5872 committees were selected, out of which only 4303 committees were active.

The Secretary informed that paddy procurement is being reviewed continuously and officers from the headquarters are also doing weekly visits and inspections. Appreciating this effort, the Honorable Minister said that maximum number of farmers of the state should be benefited from this and the set target should be achieved 100%.

Mr. Dharmendra Singh, Secretary Cooperative Department, Mrs. Inayat Khan, Registrar Cooperative Societies, Mr. Prabhat Kumar, Additional Registrar Cooperative Societies, Mr. Lalan Sharma, Mr. Kameshwar Thakur, Mr. Bharat Kumar, Mr. Shambhusen Kumar, Joint Registrar Cooperative Societies and other officials were present in the meeting.