Fill up vacant agri posts: CAG

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has asked the State Government to address the issue of staff shortage, particularly at the level of assistant agricultural officers (AAOs) and village agricultural workers (VAWs), as it has a serious adverse impact on services and training programmes in this sector.

In its report on the agriculture sector in the State, the CAG observed that extension services to the farmers by the Agriculture Department were badly affected due to large-scale vacancies in VAW and AAO posts.

The CAG also advised the State Government to streamline the seed procurement system for preventing procurement and supply of sub-standard seeds. It said an effective monitoring system on procurement of seeds by the Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) under the Seed Village Scheme should be evolved. Coordination among Agriculture, Water Resources and Revenue departments should be ensured while acquiring agricultural/irrigated land for industrial use, it said.

The CAG said 9,662.45 hectares of private land in 13 districts __ Angul, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Kalahandi, Koraput and Rayagada __ was transferred to industrial houses for setting up industries through land acquisition process without seeking prior approval/concurrence of the Agriculture Department.