Farmers Movement Archive

Haryana farmers block highways over slow, conditional procurement

Upset over poor and conditional procurement of paddy in the grain mandis in Haryana, farmers blocked highways.In Kurukshetra, farmers blocked the Delhi-Chandigarh NH-44 causing traffic jam for several kilometres on one of country’s busiest highways. The farmers lifted the blockade from NH-44 following an assurance from the government to speed up procurement operations from October 6. Thousands of commuters remained stranded for several hours as the blockade lasted for more than six hours.The protesters of Kaithal district blocked the Hisar-Chandigarh highway at the Pehowa Chowk. They lifted the blockade by the evening. Local gurdwaras were serving langar to the commuters stranded due to traffic snarls.Following the farmers blocking the highways for hours, the Kurukshetra police issued an advisory for the commuters travelling on NH-44 and NH-152 Ambala-Hisar highway.The commuters of NH-44 were advised to travel on diverted routes from Shahbad-Ladwa-Indri to Karnal and people travelling on the link road NH-152 were advised to travel via Thol-Jhansa and Malikpur link road.Kurukshetra deputy commissioner Mukul Kumar said the matter has been taken up at the headquarters level and the issue will be resolved soon.The protesters alleged that the government agencies are not procuring the produce and most of the paddy is lying in the mandis unprocured for the past couple of days despite the government claiming that procurement was started in all mandis in Haryana from October 3.Ramesh Kumar, of Kaithal district, alleged that he is waiting for buyers of his produce since September 30 and nobody has come to buy his paddy yield.Haryana BKU (Charuni) spokesperson Rakesh Bains said the government agencies are not procuring the paddy lying in the mandis for the past several days on pretext of high moisture content.Bains said the government has imposed a limit to procure 25 quintal per acre whereas the average per acre yield of Parmal varieties remains around 35 quintal. He said the protest will continue until the government makes changes in the procurement norms.BKU president Gurnam Singh Charuni has threatened to intensify the agitation again and asked his supporters and farmers to again gherao the houses of BJP-JJP MLAs and MPs on October 6 if the paddy lying in mandis is not procured.As per officials associated with procurement agencies, rice millers have not joined the procurement process yet as they are opposing the new norm of depositing 5% of the total value of paddy to be provided to them for milling under the custom-milled rice policy.“As the government and rice millers have not reached any consensus yet, lifting of paddy could not be started in mandis,” said a mandi official, pleading anonymity.Additional chief secretary to Haryana food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department, Anurag Rastogi said procurement of paddy in mandis of Haryana was started from October 3 and gate passes for procurement of about 3.60 lakh tonne paddy were generated on e-Kharid portal of Haryana.However, the ACS did not provide the figures of total paddy arriving in mandis and lying unprocured but said the situation will be normalised in the next couple of days.BOXWhat farmers wantPaddy lying in mandis before beginning of procurement should be procured firstPaddy with higher moisture content of permissible limits of 17% should be procured with deduction in MSPPer acre limit of procurement should be increased from 25 quintal to 30 quintalProcured paddy lying in mandis should be lifted immediately to make space to accommodate more paddy in mandis

Hindustan Times

06-10-2021

Chandigarh