Rewari farmers suffer Rs 4.5-crore loss: Yadav

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rewari, October 22

Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav has claimed the state government started procuring bajra late, as a result of which farmers of the district have suffered a loss of Rs4.5 crore.

“By the time government agency (Hafed) stepped in the market, more than 95 per cent of bajra was already sold to private buyers at a loss of between Rs300 and Rs400 per quintal. The agency procured bajra for only couple of days,” he told the media here today. Yadav was in the city as part of Kisan Mukti Yatra.

“Private buyers procured 1.37 lakh quintals of bajra, while the government agency purchased merely 5,200 quintals on the MSP later,” he claimed.

The MSP for bajra is Rs1,425 per quintal, while farmers received about Rs1,100. Yadav demanded that the state government should compensate debt-ridden farmers.

He blamed the BJP government at the Centre and in the state for the deteriorating condition of farmers. “The Swaraj India shot off several letters to the state government, seeking bajra procurement in time. But it did not pay heed to our letters.”

On the yatra, Yadav, who is also the Jai Kisan Andolan convener, said efforts were being made to mobilise farmers across the nation over two demands: remunerative price for crops and interest-free loans.