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Agonising wait ends for farmers Khanna, October 5 Government agencies started procurement of paddy at the mandi -- the largest in India. New specifications that were agreed upon by the Central government last evening were applied from today. The specifications had been lowered to accept up to 8 per cent for damaged or discoloured paddy and a moisture content of 17 per cent. Normally 3 per cent damage is allowed while 14 per cent moisture is allowed. The new specifications were allowed after the Punjab Government pleaded that unseasonal rain in the middle of September had damaged paddy. The bad news is that about 10 per cent of paddy may not be lifted even after lowering of specifications. The damage is much more and a few piles of paddy were rejected. These stocks would be purchased by private traders at a price lower than the minimum support price of Rs 600, thus causing a loss to farmers, said officials. Several farmers, whose produce falls within the new specifications were happy. Ajaib Singh of Phari village in Fatehgarh Sahib, thanked the almighty as his 12-day ordeal ended when his stocks were lifted. "With more than 600 quintals of my produce rejected previously I had lost hope. The matter of specifications could have been sorted out earlier," he said. Another farmer said he was spending Rs 500 daily on expenses like labour and food besides chores like putting tarpaulin sheets to ward off dew. The six agencies — FCI, Markfed, Punsup, Pungrain, Punjab Mandi Board Punjab Warehousing Corporation — involved in the procurement process started lifting paddy stocks this afternoon after receiving orders from their headquarters. Mr Surinder Kumar, a commission agent at the mandi, said, "By tomorrow, more grain would come in as we have told the farmers to start harvesting the crop. About three days ago, the harvesting had been put on hold after the procurement agencies rejected the grain as it was damaged beyond the acceptable specifications. The news of the procurement spread fast in the surrounding areas of Khanna. Tractors trolleys laden with paddy and Punjabi music blaring out headed towards the mandi. One of the arrivals into the mandi was Kuldeep Singh of Goh village in Ludhiana. With 300 quintals of paddy loaded in his trolleys, he knew the stocks would be sold immediately. Meanwhile, the Khanna Rice Shellers Association today started lifting stocks but have added a rider. President of the association, Mr Sanjay Ghai, said: "We have asked the FCI to supply fresh specification for milling of rice." At present, the FCI expects the millers to supply 67 kg of rice for every 100 kg of paddy. If damaged paddy is to be procured then the rice output has also to be correspondingly lowered. He confirmed that the association had started stocking paddy but added milling would start when specifications of rice output were announced.
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Farmers threaten to block traffic on October 8 Chandigarh, October 5 “We will block traffic at selected places throughout Punjab on October 8 from 12 noon,” Mr Sukhdev Singh Kokri, convener of the Sanjha Kisan Manch, a joint body of the three organisations, announced
today. Accompanying him were Mr Kanwalpreet Singh Pannu and Mr Lehmbar Singh Taggar, members of the manch. Talking to The Tribune, he said that the suicide by a farmer in a grain market in Kapurthala two days ago was not only tragic but also unprecedented in the history of the country. “Never before has a farmer, waiting for his produce to be lifted by a state agency, ended his life in desperation,” said Mr Kokri holding that growers of cotton were facing the same problem. Blaming the new policies of the UPA government at the Centre for the situation, he said that efforts of the Indian Government to appease the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were spelling doom for Indian farmers in general and Punjab
farmers
in particular. “The marginal increase in the minimum support price
of paddy is a glaring example of this apathy of the Centre towards the
farming community of Punjab. Why should the Centre have such rigid
specifications for paddy procurement, especially when the relaxations
sought were on account of natural calamities? All we want is that the
entire produce should be procured without any conditions and the
farmers must be given the MSP,” he asserted. He said that while the
Punjab Government was blaming the central agency—the Food
Corporation of India — for the harassment of farmers, in the case of
cotton procurement, the state agency, Markfed, was forcing farmers to
sell their grade I produce as grade II. Farmers were being denied the
MSP. Nowhere at 27 cotton procurement centres were farmers getting
remunerative prices for their produce. All cotton growers must be
paid prices on a par with those given to Gujarat farmers. Mr Kokri
said that the other demands of the farmers to be highlighted by the
October 8 agitation included the waiving of all pending power bills
and the restoration of free canal water supply.
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