KORAPUT: The Congress staged a ‘rasta roko’ at Jeypore in Koraput district from 10 am to 3 pm on Thursday, protesting against the alleged mismanagement at mandis (paddy procurement centres) opened by the administration since November 9 to procure paddy from the farmers.Led by Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati, Congress workers blocked the NH-26 near the bus stand. Traffic came to a grinding halt on the route for nearly five hours.“We demand the removal of middlemen at mandis as they are exploiting farmers. The middlemen are working as agents of the millers and procuring paddy at prices lower than the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government,” alleged Bahinipati.According to the three-time legislator, the administration has failed to provide adequate infrastructure at the mandis. “The regulated market committee (RMC) takes two per cent of the MSP per quintal of paddy as commission but has failed to provide proper infrastructure” Bahinipati alleged. “If the prevailing problems is not sorted within the next two days, we will intensify our agitation across the district and may even observe a bandh,” he added. The administration has opened at least 58 mandis under the Jeypore sub-division to procure over 14 lakh quintal of paddy during the ongoing kharif marketing season (KMS).An official said steps were being taken to ensure that paddy procurement process was not affected in the district. “It is not correct to say the mandis lack infrastructure. At a few places, there are some problems and we trying to sort them. We are hopeful of achieving our target of procuring paddy for KMS,” said Loknath Dalbehera, sub-collector, Jeypore.Meanwhile, police said adequate forces were deployed at Jeypore for the Congress agitation and no untoward incident was reported during the rasta roko.

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