Chhatrapur: A case of misreporting of crop information has come to light in Chhatrapur block of Ganjam district, where a farmer allegedly registered paddy cultivation on land that actually houses a fuel pump.
Following the discovery through a satellite survey, the Cooperation Department has issued a show-cause notice to the farmer. According to official sources, a farmer registered his paddy cultivation on plot number 2468 under account number 770 under the Maa Kalijay Mahila Self-Help Group Society in Badamdhapur Panchayat. However, verification revealed that the plot houses a petrol pump.
The discrepancy went undetected during the initial physical verification by the Cooperation Department, but was later discovered through a satellite survey conducted by ORSAC. Officials stated that despite the presence of a petrol pump, the land-use classification (kind) of the plot has not been changed.
Based on these findings, the Cooperation Department issued a letter on December 23, directing the farmer to submit a show-cause notice for registering the non-agricultural land as cultivable.
When contacted, the society secretary said that he had informed them that paddy had not been cultivated on the plot, but it had been mistakenly registered as paddy land.
He also said that in the current season, 699 plots under the society were cancelled for non-compliance with rules.
Officials said that this issue is not limited to this one case. Several plots across the district, where there is no sign of paddy cultivation, were allegedly shown as agricultural land for farmer registration purposes.
To bring transparency to the paddy procurement process, the government has conducted satellite surveys of suspicious plots. District Registrar of Cooperative Societies (DRCS) Jogmaya Sabat said the state government has identified 233,438 suspicious plots in the district, according to an official letter.
Satellite surveys are being conducted for all suspicious plots, and approximately 95% of the survey work has been completed in the district so far. Data shows that 171,619 plots have been identified as non-paddy cultivated land.
Officials said that once the survey is complete, a large number of fake farmer registrations will be removed from the system.
During the current Kharif season, 156,713 farmers have registered in the district, compared to 146,504 registrations last year.
