Bittu blames CM for farmers’ woes

Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu and the AAP government in Punjab entered into allegations and counter-allegations over the tardy procurement of paddy in the state.

During a media conference at the BJP headquarters here, Bittu alleged that the Bhagwant Mann-led state government was responsible for creating glut in the state’s grain markets.

He said this was the first time ever when every sector related to agriculture was facing the brunt of wrong decision taken by the CM of an agrarian economy like Punjab. CM Bhagwant Mann had not visited any grain market across the state to understand the harsh ground realities that the farmers were facing, he said.

Instead, former CM Capt Amarinder Singh has been to the grain markets to share farmers’ problems.

During a recently conducted meeting with the Centre, CM Mann had committed that storage space to accommodate over 3 LMT produce was vacant in the state. “If there is no dearth of space, why are the Punjab’s mandis flooded with paddy,” he said.

He alleged the government wrongly approved hybrid PR-126 variety of paddy that had become bane for this procurement season. “The original PR-126 variety developed by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, is the saviour for farmers. It costs just Rs 56 per kg and can be used for preparing nursery for paddy transplantation thrice,” he said.

However, hybrid PR-126 variety seeds flooded the state market. These seeds were made available to farmer at whopping Rs 3,500 per kg. The variety is riddled with diseases and farmers ended up paying hefty price for seeds and then for pesticides and insecticides.

The Aam Aadmi Party, meanwhile, said Bittu was making false claims. Party MP Malvinder Singh Kang said there was no issue with PR-126 seeds. “If there was a problem with the seeds, how could the Centre issue CCL for purchasing paddy? He is saying such things only to mislead the people.”

Kang also refuted Bittu’s claims about fake and expensive seeds. The approved seed stores had been selling seeds at Rs 56 per kg. If Bittu heard of seeds being sold for Rs 3,500, why didn’t he raise the issue in June or July?

On the slow lifting of grains, he said the Centre claimed to have lifted 15 LMT grain in October. If that was possible, why didn’t the Centre do that from January? Had that been done, this issue wouldn’t exist. This showed the BJP government was deliberately causing slow lifting to ruin Punjab.