Electronic weighing scales at DPCs are tampered with, say farmers

Suspicion over the accuracy of electronic weighing machines and winnowers used at the direct purchase centres of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation came to the fore at the Revenue Divisional-level Agriculture Grievance Meeting held at Kumbakonam on Friday.

The issue of improper weighing, being aired by the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association at various forums in the recent past, was raised by the CPI-affiliated Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam members, led by the Thanjavr District Deputy Secretary, R. Senthilkumar, and the district Vice-President, A.M. Ramalingam, at the Kumbakonam grievance meeting. The sangam members alleged that the electronic weighing machines had been tampered with at several DPCs.

Though the machines displayed the approved weight of 40.700 kg, the actual weight went up by one or even 2 kg over and above the approved weight.

They said 700 grams was added to the 40 kg weight of a paddy bag to ‘compensate’ for the weight loss due to drying and transportation, which was acceptable to farmers, they said.

Similarly, the winnowing machines had been calibrated in such a manner that broken or damaged paddy grains were thrown out along with black grains/husk and other particles, which was later segregated and sold by the DPC staff.

Stating that the electronic weighing machines used at the DPCs were not being checked publicly by the Labour Department, which is authorised to carry out verification and stamping of weighing machines/scales under Legal Metrology Act, 2009, the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association secretary, Sundara Vimalanathan, said whenever he raised this issue at the farmers meeting convened by the senior officials at the district-level, it was side-stepped or ignored.