Farmers Movement Archive

Over 98% paddy procured: Ashu; 15% yet to reach mandis: Farmers

Bathinda: Refuting claims of farmer groups and opposition parties where they have said that a considerable amount of paddy is still to be procured, Punjab food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu has made it clear that the state government has procured nearly 98% paddy, and mandis will be closed in a day or two. Afterwards, a small window will remain open for farmers and the procurement will be made only after fully verifying the details about paddy and no purchase will be made for arhtiyas and rice millers. Speaking to TOI, Ashu said, “As much as 179 lakh metric tonne paddy had arrived in mandis till evening of November 9, out of which 178 lakh MT has been procured. We expect 5-6 lakh MT more in the two days before mandis are closed for procurement. The claims of 15-20% paddy is yet to arrive are not as per ground reality. We feel only up to 2% paddy might not have come to mandis, but not more than that.” Last year, a record 203 lakh MT paddy was procured in Punjab. Ashu said a lot of hue and cry was made over how this much of paddy came to Punjab and this time “we have put a lot of checks against bogus billing.” He said though there is no any issue of payments, it has been stopped for a couple of days to verify various details and it will be released after checking the same. The farmer groups are making claims that over 15% paddy is still to arrive in mandis as a big part out of it has not been harvested yet. They have decided to raise the issue with the chief minister and also to hold protests if mandis are closed. BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan and BKU (Ekta Dakaunda) president Buta Singh Burjgill said a lot of paddy is still to reach mandis and to be procured, so closing the mandis is totally unjustified. They will raise the matter with the CM and if no solution is found, they will hold protests.

The Times of India

2021-11-11

Amritsar