Punjab commission agents, rice millers join farmers to protest ‘tardy’ paddy procurement

In a rare show of unity, reminiscent of the one shown during the year-long farmers’ protest of 2020-21, the commission agents and rice millers of Punjab on Friday joined hands with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) to protest against the “tardy” paddy procurement, and decided to continue with their protest by not procuring paddy.

The three major stakeholders in the paddy procurement - farmers, arhtiyas and rice millers - have also announced to launch their coordinated agitation from Sunday by holding a “chakka jam” protest across Punjab from noon to 3 pm.

If their demands are not met, the joint group of stakeholders will seek support of many other trade unions to launch a protest on October 14.

The announcement was made here jointly by SKM leaders, both associations of arhtiyas and two rice millers’ associations.

“This is an agitation to save Punjab and its agrarian economy. There will no movement of vehicles on Sunday for three hours. While the Centre has been giving an indifferent treatment to the state for four years, the state’s AAP government is also no good. That is why farmers have to sit in mandis for days in the hope that their produce will be purchased. But it is a futile exercise. It’s been 11 days since the procurement began, but the government has failed to get all stakeholders on board,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, senior leader of SKM.

The millers and arhtiyas said they were forced to start the agitation, as their demands - creating storage space for this year’s paddy, being forced to give high out-turn ratio from hybrid varieties of paddy, restoring the commission of arhtiyas at 2.5 per cent, etc, were not met.