#Title

Fair price still eludes
from page 16
from 300 millers.
Procurement will continue till August 31.
HOW FARMERS ARE SELECTED
First of all, representatives of local government bodies like union parishads prepare a list of farmers. Then the local DAE office arranges lotteries and selects the farmers from whom the government would procure.
Ashish Kumar Roy, food officer in Shalla upazila, said it is not possible to buy paddy from all the farmers. For example, 6,619 farmers in the upazila applied to sell paddy to the government, but only 912 were selected through lottery.
But farmers alleged that there was some foul play involved, which favours people associated with the ruling party.
Khairul Bashar Thakur Khan, legal affairs secretary of the central committee of Krishak Sangram Samity, said the government officials are favouring the ruling party men in the name of lottery, and thus depriving real farmers.
Middlemen are also playing a role.
Mohammad Ali, a member of North Baradal Union Parishad of Tahirpur upazila, said farmer Abdul Malek of Brahmangaon village died three years ago, but a middleman sold paddy using the dead man’s farmer card. This is one of many instances of how middlemen, who are locally influential, use fake cards, he said.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MOST FARMERS?
Visiting Madhaynagar rice market in Dharmapasha upazila, the biggest rice wholesale market of Sunamganj, this correspondent found that rice mill owners were buying paddy directly from farmers.
Kamrul Islam, a farmer from Karchar Haor in Bishwambhapur upazila, said, “I’m selling paddy here for Tk 550-650 per maund because I was not selected in the government’s lottery. I may give up paddy cultivation in the future.”
Only eight out of 190 farmers in his village made it to the final list through lottery, he said, adding, they got the fair price, but the rest did not.
Farmer Swapan Kumar Barman ofBishwambhapursaid most farmers of his village took bank loans for paddy cultivation. Since they are not getting the fair price, they do not know how they would repay the loans. “One cannot buy 1kg of hilsa by selling one maund of paddy. How can we survive?” he asked.
Jyotirmoy Roy, a rice trader and president of Madhyanagar Dhan Arotdar Samity, said, “We are buying paddy at Tk 540-680 per mound as farmers are desperate to sell their paddy for survival.”
Bazlul Majid Chowdhury Khasru, president of Haor Bachao Sunamganj Bachao Andolon, claimed that farmers were forced to sell paddy to middlemen at a lower price due to the lack of government’s monitoring and proper initiatives.
The government has so far bought 9,444 tonnes of paddy and 16,496 tonnes of rice till yesterday (August 19) in Sunamganj, according to the district food controller.
Contacted, Sunamganj District Food Controller Zakaria Mostafa said DAE enlisted the farmers under supervision of local UP chairmen and the upazila executive officers.
“We cannot verify who is a middleman or who is a farmer. We collect paddy only after seeing the farmer card. None of us is involved in irregularities,” he said.
When told that they have procured only 50 percent of the target since April, he said, “We will apply for an extension of the procurement period.”
Md Safar Uddin, deputy director of local DAE office, also denied the allegation of irregularities.

China plans to make Shenzhen a ‘better place’ than Hong Kong
Afp, Beijing
China’s government has unveiled plans to boost the mainland city of Shenzhen and make it into what state media called a “better place” than neighbouring Hong Kong, following another huge pro-democracy rally in the semi-autonomous financial hub.
Weeks of rallies, demonstrations, and occupations have plunged Hong Kong into crisis -- which Beijing is now framing as an opportunity for Shenzhen’s development.
Yesterday, state-run media outlined a set of guidelines released by the central Chinese government that aims to turn Shenzhen into a pilot area of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.