High wheat arrivals, tardy lifting choke state mandis

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, April 26

Unlifted wheat in mandis in the state is over two times the stock that has been lifted. As a result, the mandis are facing a glut. Transportation and labour pangs, besides “mismanagement” in the supply of gunny bags in a few pockets, are only making matters difficult.

Grain dumped in cremation grounds

• At many places, especially in the south Malwa region, where mandis are located next to cremation grounds, farmers have reportedly started dumping the produce at the cremation grounds
• The authorities have said farmers should rest assured that each grain of wheat will be bought and they will continue to release the payments to the farmers within 24 hours of the purchase

No shortage of bags

There is no shortage of gunny bags anywhere in Punjab. As against a target of procuring 132 LMT of wheat, we have arranged for gunny bags to fill 140 LMT of wheat. Vikas Garg, Secy, Food and Supplies

As daily arrivals in the mandis cross 11 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) for the second day today, 49.53 LMT of wheat is lying unlifted in the mandis. Only 23.09 LMT of wheat has been lifted from the 76.88 LMT of wheat that has arrived in the mandis so far.

While officials in the Food and Supply Department blame the glut in the mandis on the sudden high arrivals of the grain, information gathered from mandis reveals that other than the unprecedented high arrivals, many transporters allotted contracts for lifting the grains are short of vehicles and labour.

Vijay Kalra, president of the Federation of Arhtiya Association of Punjab, who held a meeting of all commission agents in Moga, said the transporters hired by the government could not arrange for trucks to carry the wheat from the mandis. “There are labour problems and the labour is refusing to clean the grains and fill these in bags. This is leading to a glut. In many places, especially in south Malwa, where mandis are located next to cremation grounds, farmers have started dumping the produce in the cremation grounds,” he said.

Param Singh, a farmer from Phumanwal village in Sangrur, told The Tribune that he had been waiting with his grain in the Kalajhar mandi for four days now. “Officials in the mandi say there are no gunny bags to fill the grains,” he rued.

Kalra said they were aware of artificial scarcity of gunny bags being created in some mandis close to silos to force farmers to take the grains to silos directly.