Farmers' paddy did not reach the government stores. The government's aim in buying paddy directly from farmers was not achieved: supplying the food stores by lottery has brought luck to middlemen and misfortune to farmers. The government's good intention of helping farmers was undermined by the local officials in charge.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder has himself acknowledged this. He too says the farmer lists drawn up by lottery for government aman paddy purchases were not correct.

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

He added 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 a single bigha got cards at the time. Now they no longer farm — some drive vans, some pull rickshaws — but they still hold the cards.

Akimuddin said they use the cards whenever government benefits arrive, even if they do not farm. When the lottery was held this time to supply paddy to the stores, people who do not farm also applied. Because they are more numerous, more of their names came up, and the real farmers were left out.

Although the plan was to list farmers by lottery and buy paddy from them in turn, the list of selected farmers in Kurigram included a union parishad chairman, his wife, two sons and brother, as well as 11 union parishad members, including three members from reserved women's seats.

This came from the list of selected paddy farmers in Holokhana union of Kurigram Sadar upazila. A union parishad member of Holokhana who did not receive an agriculture card has lodged a written complaint with the Kurigram Sadar upazila nirbahi officer (UNO). Holokhana union parishad chairman Md Omar Faruk admitted that the names had been included by recommendation, not by lottery.

Admitting the matter, Md Omar Faruk said: "I said that I have a lot of cultivation, so they should put in the names of 12 people from the council, including four names from my family. Since questions have been raised about it, I will correct it."

Asked how all their names came up despite a lottery, the chairman said: "Only 12 or 14 names, not very many!"

At the Puthia upazila food store in Natore, it has been reported that the upazila administration and some leaders of the ruling party formed a syndicate and supplied paddy to the store by showing fake farmers' names in the lottery.

The lottery put 628 farmers on the list to supply paddy to the store. 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 sells paddy to the store in the names of these fake farmers, and the fake farmers take money in between.

Md Oliuzzaman, upazila nirbahi officer and chairman of the upazila food procurement committee, said the lottery had been arranged to buy paddy from real farmers. "We are buying paddy after proper verification. No one other than farmers can supply paddy," he said.

In Rajnagar upazila of Moulvibazar, real farmers allege that the government's good initiative is not being carried out because of the agriculture office's irresponsibility. Buying paddy by lottery there has brought luck to middlemen and misfortune to farmers, and there is suppressed 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, selection was made by lottery. If anyone who did not farm is among those selected, their name will be removed and a real farmer's name added.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said the farmer lists drawn up by lottery for government aman paddy purchases were not correct. He said this last Saturday at a meeting on aman procurement at the Chapainawabganj deputy commissioner's conference room.

The minister sought everyone's cooperation in removing the bad reputation of the Directorate of Food and the Ministry of Food. Harassment of farmers and corruption of any kind will not be tolerated, he said, and officials of the ministry and directorate must not have any relationship with middlemen.

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