Farmers Movement Archive

Protest in Patiala as gunny bags’ shortage affects procurement

Patiala: A number of farmers on Saturday staged a protest against the district administration and the state government in Sangrur against the shortage of gunny bags. The farmers protested for around two hours after which the administrative officials assured them to provide the gunny bags soon. However, the farmers and arhtiyas claimed that procurement of the wheat has been affected following shortage of gunny bags. “We held a protest from 11am to 1pm on Saturday at Patiala – Sunam road near Gharachon grain market of Sangrur district against the shortage of gunny bags. The administration had failed to provide the bags in time following which the farmers have been facing difficulties and the procurement of wheat produce is affected in the grain markets. The officials have assured us to provide bags by Sunday evening,” said Jagtar Singh, BKU (Ekta Ugraha) leader in Sangrur Similarly, in Patiala grain market the arhtiyas claimed that procurement was affected due to shortage of gunny bags. “The tenders for the gunny bags have been opened on Friday, but these are yet to reach the grain markets. The wheat produce is arriving in the grain markets at high pace but the yield cannot be packed and stored following lack of gunny bags. There was no procurement on Saturday in Patiala grain market.” ‘Should have been done earlier’ Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, on Saturday opened her office in Patiala and targeted the state government over failure to make preparations of implementing the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme and said these orders were issued by the central government around two years ago but the state government had not done any preparations regarding this but now Punjab had to implement it in one go. “The orders issued from higher authorities cannot be deferred or rejected easily. The issue of farm crisis will not be resolved with only the repeal of three agricultural laws. I am working out on a plan to improve farmers’ income. We don’t need five corporate houses, we need 200 corporate houses. We need to improve quality of soil and food.”

The Times of India

2021-04-18

Chandigarh