Farmers' paddy has not reached the government stores. The goal for which the government set out to buy paddy from farmers has not been met. Because paddy is supplied to food stores through a lottery, middlemen have struck lucky while farmers have lost out. The government's good intention of helping farmers has been undermined by the local officials in charge.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder himself has acknowledged this. He too says the lists of farmers drawn up by lottery for the government's aman paddy purchase were not correct.

Akimuddin, a model farmer from Charpara village in Dhunat, Bogura, told Jago News that the names of real farmers, people who actually grew paddy, did not come up in the lottery. Instead, people who had never grown paddy in their lives were drawn, and some middlemen were buying their tickets. Those middlemen are the ones supplying paddy to the food stores.

He said that because the lottery was based on the agriculture cards issued for fertiliser under the BNP government, most of the lottery places went to BNP-Jamaat people. Charpara has about 15 farmers, but 150 people were given agriculture cards. Even those who sharecropped one bigha of land got cards then. Now they do not farm; some drive vans, some pull rickshaws, but they still have their cards.

Akimuddin said that even though they do not farm, they use the cards whenever government benefits come. This time, when the lottery was held for supplying paddy to the stores, people who do not farm also applied. Because they are more numerous, more of their names came up, while the real farmers were left out.

The farmers were supposed to be listed by lottery and their paddy bought in turn, but in Kurigram the list of selected farmers included a union parishad chairman, his wife, two sons and brother. The names of 11 UP members, including three members from reserved women's seats, were also on it.

This was found in the list of selected paddy-growing farmers in Holokhana union of Kurigram Sadar upazila. A UP member of Holokhana union who did not get an agriculture card has made a written complaint to the Kurigram Sadar upazila nirbahi officer (UNO). Holokhana union parishad chairman Md Umar Faruk admitted that the names were included not through the lottery but on recommendation.

Admitting it, Md Umar Faruk said: "I said that since I have a lot of cultivation, give four names from my family along with 12 names from the parishad. Since this has been questioned, I will correct it."

Asked how all their names had come up despite the lottery, the chairman replied: "Only 12 or 14 names, not very many!"

In Puthia upazila of Natore, it is reported that the upazila administration and a few ruling-party leaders formed a syndicate and supplied paddy to the upazila food store by showing fake farmers' names in the lottery.

The lottery list for supplying paddy to the store contained 628 farmers. Several farmers in the upazila allege that most of those listed are not real farmers; they did not grow paddy, but their names came up. The syndicate is selling paddy to the store in the names of these fake farmers, who are getting money in the middle.

Upazila nirbahi officer and upazila food procurement committee chairman Md Oliuzzaman said the lottery was arranged to buy paddy from real farmers. "We are buying paddy after proper checks. No one except farmers can supply paddy."

In Rajnagar upazila of Moulvibazar, real farmers allege that the government's worthy initiative is not being carried out because of irresponsibility at the agriculture office. There too, procurement through the lottery has favoured middlemen while farmers have lost out, and there is simmering anger among the upazila's marginal farmers.

Rajnagar upazila agriculture officer Shahadul Islam said everyone wants to sell paddy, but because the allocation is small, the selection was made by lottery. If anyone who did not farm is among those selected, their names will be removed and real farmers' names added.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said the lists of farmers made by lottery for the government's aman paddy purchase were not correct. He said this last Saturday at a views-exchange meeting on aman procurement at the Chapainawabganj deputy commissioner's conference room.

The minister asked for everyone's cooperation in removing the bad name that the Directorate of Food and the Ministry of Food have. He said harassment of farmers and any kind of corruption would not be tolerated, and officials of the ministry and the directorate must not have any links with middlemen.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.