Farmers occupy toll plazas over delayed procurement

Continuing with their protest against the tardy procurement process, farmers associated with the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugraha) made three toll plazas in the district free for commuters here on Thursday. They had demonstrated on the rail tracks on October 13 and demanded non-stop procurement of paddy yield in the grain markets.

Farmer leaders claimed that the government didn’t make any effort for the timely procurement of paddy produce and farmers are having to spend nights in the mandis to sell their crop. The leaders said if the government did not streamline the procurement soon, major demonstrations will be held by them. Three toll plazas in Amritsar district — Nijjarpura (Manawala), Variam Nangal toll (Kathoonangal) and Chhidan (Attari) — were made free today. The BKU (EU) leader gave a call to gherao the residence of Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal tomorrow.

While demonstrating at the Nijjarpura toll plaza on the Amritsar-Jalandhar highway, Kashmir Singh Majithia, district president of the BKU (Urgraha) stated that they have been demonstrating against the government for not procuring the paddy grain lying in the markets.

“A large part of paddy crop is still standing in the fields. The produce arrived in the mandis is not being procured. Even the procured paddy is not being lifted from the mandis. Today, we made the road toll free for public in protest against the tardy procurement process. It will continue until the government procures the paddy.”

Parminder Singh, another farmer leader, said, “Now the sowing of wheat is going to start after some days, but no DAP fertilizer has yet been supplied by the government to cooperative societies. Despite a lot of hue and cry, fake pesticide and insecticides are being sold in the market and the government has failed to take any action against those selling these. They said the government should arrange DAP on time.”

The leaders said the market price of 1509 basmati crop was very low due to which farmers got Rs 15-20,000 per acre loss. Paramjit Rokhe, Jagtar Singh Jahagir, Kulbir Jethuwal, Lakhwinder Mudhal, Mangal Singh and Malkit Singh were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, farmers of the district under the banner of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) started indefinite dharnas on all the three toll plazas in the district on Thursday. They let vehicles pass the toll plazas without paying the fee. The farmers would gherao the residences of the four MLAs of the district from Friday for an indefinite period. Gurbaj Singh Sidhwan, district president of the BKU (EU), said the farmers started dharnas at the Usman, Mannan and Bhagupur toll plazas from today.

Gurbaj Singh Sidhwan said the dharnas would continue without any break till the paddy procurement is started. He laid stress on the management of the paddy residue. He called upon the sheller owners and the arhtiyas to be united on the common demands as the Union Government and the state government were not fulfilling the current demands of the farmers, arhtiyas and the sheller owners.

Gurbaj Singh demanded the early finalisation of the agreement with the sheller owners to unload paddy. Bhupinder Singh Thathian, Sulakhan Singh Madala, Hardeep Singh Jaura and Santokh Singh were among others who addressed the gathering.