Koraput: The district administration has decided to rope in millers from outside the district for the ongoing kharif marketing season to sort out the logjam over the procurement of paddy at the mandis (paddy procurement centres).

The decision was taken after managing director of the Odisha Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (Niranjan Nayak toured the district on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

"As the millers of the district are not willing to take part in the procurement process, it has been decided to engage millers of other districts to lift paddy from the mandis," said Nayak.

During his visit, Nayak interacted with the farmers, millers and inspected several mandis in the district. He said the government would be appraised of the prevailing paddy procurement situation of the district, hoping that millers from Balangir would be engaged to procure paddy in Koraput.

Last week, stalemate in the paddy procurement process arose in the district after the corporation disqualified 24 millers for not returning the prescribed 70 per cent of rice under custom milling against the paddy they had procured during the rabi marketing season.

However, opposing the government's move, all the 76 millers of the district have decided not to take part in the paddy procuring process. As a result, huge quantities of paddy are lying at various mandis opened by the administration and the farmers have become the worst sufferers.

"We are facing much difficulty as our produces are not being procured. We urge the administration to sort out the problem at the earliest and to lift paddy from the mandis," said Budu Sahu, a farmer of Jeypore block.

Civil supplies officer (Koraput) Ballav Chandra Das said, "In the first phase. we have got a target of 13, 35,000 quintals of paddy procurement through mandis. For this, we have opened 46 mandis across the district since last week of November."