Names of the enthusiastic farmers who would be allowed to sell Aman paddy to the food department are selected through lottery. District controller of food Antara Mallick said the government would purchase as many as 7446 tonnes of Aman paddy through 11 purchasing centers of the department from the farmers directly under Aman Paddy Procurement Drive of the government during the current Aman season. Of them, some 1840 tonnes of Paddy would be purchased from 1840 farmers of Gobindaganj upazila in the district. Each farmer is allowed to sell a ton of paddy to the department this season and the price of per kg paddy has been fixed at TK 27, Sources said. Upazila controller of food Swapon Kumar Dev said as the number of enthusiastic farmers has become more than the requirement, the upazila food purchasing committee took decision to select the names of the farmers through lottery. Accordingly, the lottery was held at the auditorium of upazila parishad on Wednesday with UNO Abu Sayeed in the chair. Local lawmaker Engineer Monowar Hossain Chowdhury inaugurated the activity of the lottery virtually joining from his Dhaka office as the chief guest and upazila chairman Abdul Latif Prodhan spoke at the event as the special guest. Moderated by upazila controller of food Swapon Kumar Dev, the inaugural function was also addressed, among others by upazila agriculture officer Syed Mahmud Reza and chairman of Darbasto union parishad Md. Shariful Islam George. Speaking on the occasion, lawmaker in his speeches said the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the initiative to purchase paddy from the farmers directly to help the farmers get fair price against their crop. He also urged the food officials concerned to purchase paddy from the farmers without any criticism and irregularities. Later, the names of 1840 farmers of the upazila were finalized through lottery. Upazila level officials, farmers, political leaders, civil society members including journalists of print and electronic media attended the programme. Earlier, the names of 748 farmers of Saghata upazila were also selected through lottery at the initiative of the upazila food purchasing committee on Tuesday. Upazila chairman Zahangir Kabir attended the function as the chief guest while UNO Sarder Mostafa Shahin presided over the ceremony. Upazila controller of food Abdur Rashid Sarker, officer in charge of local supply depot Ziaur Rahman, upazila agriculture extension officer Razia Tarafder, general secretary of upazila Jubo League Nasirul Islam Swapon and political leaders, farmers were also present during the lottery.
