Vigilance staff expose irregularities in PPCs

Srikakulam: The Vigilance and Enforcement officials have exposed the irregularities in the organised network of paddy purchasing centres (PPCs) across the district. 

Srikakulam Regional Vigilance and Enforcement Officer (RVEO) T Hari Krishna formed various teams and inspected a total 26 PPCs across the district in different mandals on Thursday and Friday along with legal metrology department officials. 

In the current year, the district officials not started PPCs till December last week, as a result, middlemen and traders are exploiting farmers for more than a month. Even after they started the PPCs, the officials are not supervising paddy procurement properly, as a result, farmers are not getting benefits and even minimum support price (MSP).

PPCs are not opened properly and in-charges also not attending as a result ground level staff are acting irregularly and no godown facility available at most of PPCs out of total inspected 26. 

No electronic weighing and moisture testing machines are available at these PPCs. 

At Rajam PPC, middlemen are submitting xerox documents related to farmers like pattadar passbook and aadhaar cards. Vigilance teams also found huge variation in paddy quantity available  physically and appeared on records at Rajam, Veeragattam and Ponduru PPCs. 

Sarubujjili mandal centre PPC started by DCMS closed recently and was shifted to a dilapidated school premises where no transactions are recorded. 

At Laveru also PPC was closed when officials inspected. No display boards appeared at Veeragattam and other PPCs and not mentioned details like MSP for different varieties and names of farmers from whom they procured paddy. 

The ground realty is millers are procuring paddy from middlemen and the middlemen are procuring paddy from farmers by paying Rs 1,280 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 1,440 for normal variety of paddy. 

“We have submitted the report to government on irregularities at PPCs” RVEO T Hari Krishna told this newspaper. 

On the other hand, district collector K Dhanunjaya Reddy reviewed on PPCs with officials concerned on Saturday and expressed his ire and directed the officials to rectify them immediately in the wake of vigilance surprise inspections.