334 farmers picked thru lottery
Chatmohar upazila administration in Pabna has come up with a system of random procurement of paddy through lottery from 334 farmers out of a total 50,500 listed farmers in the upazila.
The administration organised the lottery on Tuesday to procure 334 tonnes of paddy from farmers selected through the lottery.
According to Hasan Rashid, agriculture officer of the upazila, over 50 thousand tonnes of Boro is likely to be produced this year on 8 thousand hectares of land in the upazila.
The lottery programme is the best choice to select the farmers, he also said.
The event, chaired by Assistant Commissioner (Land) Iftekharul Islam, was conducted in the presence of Chatmohar Upazila Parishad Chairman Abdul Hamid Master, its Vice Chairman Ishhaque Ali Manik, Upazila Agriculture Officer Hasan Rashid and Upazila Food Officer Mamun A Kaium.
Abdul Hamid Master, the upazila chairman, said the lottery programme has been introduced for the first time so the farmers can easily sell paddy to the government without the influence of any syndicate.
Name of farmer Siddique Ali from Saikulla village was not drawn in the lottery. Feeling deprived, he said the lottery is nothing but a mockery to farmers.
Considering the poor market price of paddy this year, all farmers should have been given the chance to sell their paddy to the government at Tk 26 per kg rate, he added.
Md Shafiul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (the DC in-charge) in Pabna, however, said he was not aware of the lottery in the upazila to procure paddy from farmers.
“According to government rule, all listed farmers have the right to sell paddy to the government... There’s is no rule of lottery for selecting farmers... I will find out about the matter soon.”
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