Kerala High Court Laments Govt's Failure To Disburse Paddy Procurement Dues To Farmers Despite Its Orders

The Kerala High Court recently expressed regret over the State government's failure to clear paddy procurement dues to farmers, despite repeated orders.

"The failure of the respondents to pay the amounts due to the farmers despite the orders passed by this Court cannot be countenanced. The learned Government Pleader submits that all measures shall be taken to pay the amounts due and he shall come up with positive inputs on 11.9.2023 as regards the time frame,” a bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V noted.

The Court was hearing a batch of writ petitions filed by aggrieved farmers who sold their paddy to the Government of Kerala through Supplyco but have not received any payment in return. Supplyco has been authorized by the State Government to act as the implementation agency for Decentralized Paddy Procurement, Processing and Marketing Scheme of the Government of India.

Petitioners' counsel informed the bench that many of them have borrowed money for paddy cultivation and are under financial liabilities. Most of them have no other income, other than the income from agricultural activities. If the amount due to the petitioners remain unpaid, they will unable to to cultivate paddy for the next crop season, it was submitted.

“Agriculture is the important and primary sector of the nation. The farmers should be considered in the first priority since their labour, dedication and commitment feeds the nation,” their plea read.

Last month, the High Court had noted that despite several opportunities, no amounts were disbursed by the respondents to the farmers. It had passed an interim order directing Supplyco and the government to disburse the amounts due to the farmers within a week.

On Tuesday, counsel appearing for Supplyco made a statement in Court that some of the payments have already been made and the rest of the dues will be cleared within a week. A sum of Rs.50,000/- has been paid to certain individual farmers, it was submitted.

However, this was "strongly controverted" by the Petitioners' counsel. The matter is now listed for recording further progress on September 11.

The petitioners are represented by Advocates Millu Dandapani, Legith T Kottakkal, P.R.Banerji, Binoy Vasudevan, Sreejith Sreenath, S.Ranjit, Gokul Das V.V.H., T.K.Sandeep , Veena Harikumar and Swetha R.

Case name: K Sivanandhan V State of Kerala and other matters

Case number: WP(C) Nos.23267, 24835, 25152, 25410 and 25575 of 2023

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