Gadchiroli Sept. 27 (District Correspondent) Arounf 7,000 quintals of paddy purchased by the Tribal Cooperative Society Chandala near here has virtually rotten as it has been lying in the open in lack of any storage facility thereby causing a loss of crores of rupees to the government.
The Society had purchased this paddy from the farmers but it was kept on the open ground as there was no any storage facility with the Society nor the paddy was lifted for the milling. The entire paddy stock has now badly damaged and rotten because of rains and the government suffered a loss of crores of rupees.
The paddy is purchased through the Tribal Cooperative Societies under the Tribal Development Corporation. Most of the Societies have no facilities of godowns to store the purchased paddy. The entire paddy is thus kept in the open.
It is learnt that the Secretary of the Society was ill for two months and was undergoing treatment at Nagpur Hospital. During his illness the Chairman of the Committee procured grain from the farmers and Chhattisgarh merchants on the 7-12 of the local farmers.
Traders picked up some grain for milling purposes but thousands of quintals of grain remained in the open. Even though the monsoon started, the office bearers of the Society did not put a tarpaulin on the sack of grains. Naturally the thousands of quintals of grains got soaked in rain due to non-disposal of grains. As a result, the government suffered a loss of more than 1 crore rupees.
During the day the cows eat the rotting sacks of grains and at night the wild boars. The smell of rotting grain makes it difficult for the families living nearby the paddy stock to stay at home, while the women who go to the lake to wash their clothes also have been suffering a lot due to this smell.
It has been demanded by Peoples Republican Party district President Munishwar Borkar, Yadao gomaskar, Ramesh Bambode and others that the collector and corporation officials should take immediate action against the concerned persons who do not manage the purchased paddy and have caused a severe loss to the government.
