Cuttack, Dec 1: The Orissa High Court yesterday squashed the directive of the Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) on supply of pumpsets to the farmers from Odisha Agro Industries Corporation (OAIC). The court, while hearing a petition filed by Mohanty Trading Company and several farmers, ruled that the farmers can take the pumpsets of their choice from any accredited company. This was informed to media by Sanjay Kumar Mohanty, president of Odisha Pumpset Dealers’ Association. The state government had decided to provide 40,000 pumpsets costing Rs 60 crore to the farmers at a subsidised rate for which it had identified 330 sellers. But as the government decided that the farmers will have to purchase the pumpsets from OAIC, the aggrieved farmers filed a writ petition in the High Court saying that they would incur heavy loss due to the faulty decision of the government. Besides, they also urged the court to order a probe into the massive financial irregularities.
