Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers protest delay in paddy procurement, threaten to intensify agitation

Upset over delay in procurement by government agencies, paddy growers from across Haryana held protests at the grain mandis on Friday.The protesters threatened to intensify their agitation if the government fails to start procurement within the next 24 hours.In Karnal, thousands of farmers and mandi labourers gathered at the local market committee office and staged protest against the government’s decision to postpone procurement to October 11.The agitators also locked the gate of the market committee office and raised slogans against the BJP-JJP government.Earlier, the government had announced to start the procurement from September 25 and later it was deferred to October 1.But late on Thursday, the Union government wrote to the state governments of Punjab and Haryana to start procurement of Parmal varieties of paddy to October 11.The protest was led by BKU (Charuni) district president Jagdeep Singh Aulakh and Karnal Arhtiya Association president Rajneesh Chaudhary.The protesting farmers said paddy is ready to harvest and thousands of quintals of paddy have arrived at grain mandis across state. They said farmers cannot afford another 10 days’ delay in harvesting as this will cause huge losses to them.They alleged that the government is intentionally delaying procurement so that private traders can purchase paddy below the minimum support price (MSP).Aulakh announced that farmers will gherao the CM’s residence in Karnal on Saturday.Similar protests were reported from Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Panipat districts as farmers locked the gates of market committees to express their resentment.In Kaithal, BKU (Charuni) leader Hoshiar Singh Gill demanded resignation of deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala as he had announced that procurement will start from September 25 but he did not have any say in this coalition government.Even the arhtiya association has demanded the government to start procurement without any further delays. The association’s Karnal district president Rajneesh Chaudhary said thousands of quintals of paddy have already arrived at various grain mandis in district as this may cause a glut situation in the mandis.BKU president Gurnam Singh Charuni has already announced to gherao houses of all MPs and MLAs of the ruling parties on October 2 if the procurement is not started.

Hindustan Times

02-10-2021

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