West Bengal: State plans to procure paddy by finger print verification from Nov

The state Food and Supplies department is planning to introduce procurement of paddy by finger print verification through E pos machines from November in the same fashion as delivery of food grains is carried out to the beneficiaries by the ration shops across the state. The procurement begins from November and continues till August but the maximum procurement takes place during November till March.

“We constantly bring in changes in the procurement process for transparency and providing ease to the farmers who come to sell their paddy. In April, we had started aadhar based finger print authentication for farmers selling their paddy. This month, we have introduced authentication for the officials manning the purchasing centres. When the concerned software will be turned on, the concerned official has to put his fingerprint and our central office will be able to ascertain whether the rightful person is doing the same, since all officials have unique ID’s,” a senior official of the department said.Previously, the portal for paddy sale can be opened by an OTP received in the registered mobile number of the concerned official in charge of a purchasing centre.

The department from this month has also initiated the process of enlisting farmers who are registered under Krishak Bandhu portal. Recently, we have also allowed farmers with joint accounts to register for selling their paddy , provided that the registration is done with the first name.The department usually goes for changes in the procurement process to check their viability from April till August when procurement is lean. The department has set a target of procuring 55 lakh metric tonnes of paddy and have already procured 50 lakh MT. From November last year, the state Food and Supplies department had been allowing farmers the discretion of fixing their own schedule for selling of paddy. Registered farmers can fix their own schedule for selling paddy at the nearest purchase centre of his district. They can choose any purchase centre subject to availability of slots in the next 30 days. If the farmer fails to turn up to sell his paddy on the scheduled day, he can fix the schedule again only after 10 days after the date of the previous schedule. They can also themselves change the schedule , if need arises, at least 3 days before the date fixed earlier to any next available date. Most importantly, for the last three years, the state Food department has ensured that the payment in connection with paddy procurement is credited directly by the government to the bank account of the farmers through online transfer which has ensured hassle free payments.

This article has been republished from The Millennium Post