Rice over riots in Chhattisgarh: The paddy trade in Red hotbed

Over 2,000 farmers from the interior areas of the worst Maoist-infested Narayanpur district will be selling paddy for the first time at MSP at the procurement centres

Pappu Potai, a farmer from village Kadandi in restive Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh, never anticipated that paddy could earn him good returns.

The young farmer, living in a village tucked away unobtrusively in the unfamiliar Abujmarh region of Bastar, has been giving away the yield at throwaway rates since the villagers have limited resources at their disposal.

For, no government schemes have earlier reached the pocket that Maoists claimed to be their ‘liberated’ zone. Since only a handful of traders approached, following Red terror, the villagers have the least room for price negotiation.

Potai has been taking paddy crops in