Procurement blues acquire alarming proportions: Bearing brunt of AAP-BJP tug of war: Farmers

Sitting on a charpoy and tirelessly waiting for the procurement of their produce for more than a week at Ropar mandi, Jaspal Singh of Manpur village, Balbir Singh Gill of Jhallian Kalan and Bhag Singh of Thauna share how some of them desperately need money to repay loans.

MLAs avoid visiting mandis

• The situation has become so grave that leaders of the ruling party are avoiding to visit the grain markets
• In Ropar, posters of ‘missing’ MLAs have also sprung up at some of the mandis

Balbir Singh of Parhi village said, “There is hardly any farmer who hasn’t taken a loan, which needs to cleared after selling paddy. Since we live in a society, we also have social obligations. Due to a tug of war between the BJP-led Centre and the AAP government in the state, produce is not being procured. Festivities have no meaning for us.”

He said he was yet to harvest paddy on eight acres of his land as he waits for the procurement to commence.

The hearsay is that rice millers were playing into the hands of the BJP by refusing to mill paddy and the “inability of the novice AAP government to resolve the matter”.

With distress sale of hybrid varieties being carried on surreptitiously, farmers squarely blame the Centre and the state for their current predicament.

Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, Renewable Energy Minister Aman Arora and NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal blamed the BJP for the crisis. They accused the Centre of playing into the hands of corporate houses to ensure their entry into the agricultural sector.

As The Tribune traversed through small and big mandis in parts of Puadh region, desperation is writ large on the faces of the farmers’, labourers and arhtiyas.

The problem of paddy lifting is worst here as farmers have cultivated only PR 126 or hybrid varieties, which the rice millers have refused to mill till the Government of India reduces the out-turn ratio of these varieties.

Farmers said harvested crop was lying in their tractor-trailers at home as well. “Since harvesting is getting delayed and wheat needs to be sown by November 15, setting paddy stubble on fire in thousands of acres of land is now inevitable,” they said.

With Punjab remaining on the edge, amid farmers protests at 51 places for the sixth day today, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann called the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, informing him of the gravity of the situation and urging the Centre’s immediate intervention to resolve the crisis.

A meeting of the rice millers with the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Pralhad Joshi is due for Wednesday afternoon.

The latest data shows that of the 35.73 LMT of paddy arrived in the mandis, 32.29 LMT has been purchased but only 6.66 LMT has been lifted.

While farmers remain worried about their produce not being procured, labourers who come mostly from Bihar for a month during procurement season said they might head back if situation remains the same.

Labour contractor Mohammad, who came with 60 migrants, said we worked for just two days at Ropar mandi. In next two to three days, we might go back to Bettiah in Bihar, he said. “I have been coming here for 16 years and have never seen such a desperate situation,” he rued.

At Rampur Parkhali, commission agent Major Singh said he had purchased a few thousand quintals of paddy, which hasn’t been lifted. “As the produce lies in mandis, there will be moisture loss, thus leading to reduction in weight. The cost of this reduction in weight will have to be borne by arhtiyas. That is why arhtiyas are not purchasing paddy till the issue with rice millers gets resolved,” he said.