No trucks to transport paddy to godowns

KARIMNAGAR: Kamera Ravinder, a farmer from Vannaram in Ramagundam mandal is waiting at Karimnagar market yard since May 27, to sell his paddy. Similar is the case with other farmers who have brought their produce to sell at various market yards and Indira Kranti Patham (IKP) centres. With the authorities failing to lift paddy, the farmers’ produce is lying in heaps in the open, at mercy of the rain.There are around 22 market yards in the district from where the paddy is lifted by trucks and transported to godowns every day. But due to non-availability of trucks, officials are not able to do the work quickly. Usually, 15 trucks are required to lift paddy at each centre, but at present they are able to get only five trucks. Another problem is the lack of hamalis (loading workers) to lift paddy into trucks.  Kola Rajamallu of Desharajpalli brought his tractor-load of paddy to Karimnagar market yard on Friday but till Saturday evening, officers had not turned up with gunny bags. Market yard officers told him that he would have to wait for four days for paddy to be lifted.K Kankamm is spending `100 daily to go to the market yard from his village to take lunch for his son, who has been stuck at the market yard for one week. “We brought only 50 per cent of paddy here. The remaining produce is still in the fields and at home. I am worried about the advancing monsoon. Already some paddy has been damaged by the sudden rains,” said Kankamm.Meanwhile, officials announced they have already picked up 10.33 lakh metric tonne of paddy out of the total 12.6 lakh metric tonnes till Saturday. A civil supplies officer said they are distributing gunny bags to market yards, IKP and civil supply centres on a war footing. “Recently nearly 18 lakh gunny bags arrived from West Bengal and all the remaining paddy will be cleared within one week,” he said.Karimangar market committee chairman A Bhasker Reddy said, “We have 134 hamalis but only 70 workers are available on any day. Farmers should not bring their whole produce at the same time as we do not have sufficient resources to transport them,” he added.