False Registration Of Over 7K Plots As Paddy Fields In This Odisha District

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Nabarangpur: In a shocking revelation, it has come to fore that out of 43,757 farmers in the district who had registered themselves for selling paddy in the current Kharif season, at least 1,111 registrations were made by fake farmers who were growing mango, cashew, and maize instead of paddy

A satellite survey revealed that agricultural land in Umerkote block registered as paddy fields, was originally forests. Following the revelation, large area multi-purpose cooperative societies’ (LAMPS’) staff reached the respective areas for physical verification during which they found that a total of 7,615 plots comprising 32,628 acres of the district were found to be falsely registered as paddy fields. Of them, 398 were from Nabarangpur, 240 from Nandahandi, 705 in Onchologuma, and 719 in Chandahandi among others.

Notably, around 42,908 metric tonnes of the crop worth Rs 87.53 crore would have been misappropriated from the funds had the land been sold without verification.

“The fake registrations have been cancelled. We had engaged field staff for physical verification of the lands in question for the purpose. The procurement process began here from December 10,” TNIE reported district civil supplies officer Sanjib Sahu as saying.