Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said that he will take up the difficulties being faced by the farmers post demonetisation with the Centre. Patnaik was reviewing the situation with the district collectors in the aftermath of the demonetisation last month.
The district collectors during a video conference with the Chief Minister opined that farmers were facing difficulties in making payment for insurance, wages to labourers, purchase fertiliser, seeds and other essential items required for cultivation.
Based on the feedback from district collectors of Ganjam, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Bolangir about the plights of farmers, Patnaik asked RBI and bank officials present
at the meeting to ensure that required small denomination currency notes were available in bank branches across the state.
Though Patnaik had earlier requested the Centre to allow cooperative banks to exchange demonetised notes, it was not addressed at the appropriate time leading to miseries of farmers, who mostly have their bank accounts in 330 cooperative bank branches across the state.
Meanwhile, Odishas food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Dasburma said though the state government has already transferred Rs 409 crore to the bank accounts of farmers during the ongoing paddy procurement, they (farmers) were not able to draw money from their accounts due to the shortage of cash in the banks.
"Demonetisation has severely hit farmers in the state," Dasburma said adding the state has so far procured paddy to the tune of 3.58 lakh metric tonnes from 53,000 farmers.
He said paddy procurement was underway in nine districts through 255 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and the total value of procured paddy was pegged at Rs 525 crore.
This apart, the states overall revenue collection has taken a nosedive due to demonetisation, officials in the state finance department said.
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