News Mania Desk / Piyal Chatterjee / 27th October 2024
A group of Punjab BJP officials met with Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Sunday and presented a memorandum accusing the state’s AAP government of being ineffective in lifting “tardy” paddy. In order for the state’s farmers to “celebrate Diwali and Bandi Chhor Divas with their families,” the delegation pleaded with the governor to step in and see to it that all paddy is lifted from mandis as a “gift.”
The memorandum said, “Due to inefficiency on the part of the Punjab government, even after 26 days of official commencement of paddy procurement, the Punjab government has failed to lift most of the paddy from the mandis across the state.”
According to the BJP delegation, which included of Avinash Rai Khanna, Preneet Kaur, Harjit Singh Grewal, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Vijay Sampla, Vineet Joshi, and Fateh Jang Bajwa, paddy procurement for Kharif Marketing Season 2024–25 began in Punjab on October 1.The Punjab government has allegedly failed to make all the necessary arrangements on time to ensure the smooth purchase of paddy, including the purchase of tarpaulin and gunny bags, the notification of the custom milling policy or the FRK (fortified rice kernels) milling policy, the awarding of labor contracts or transportation contracts, and more, according to the BJP’s memorandum.
The state government has also failed to ensure proper drinking water, toilet facilities, and compulsory medical facilities at mandis, the memorandum said.
“Now, the ongoing paddy procurement crisis in Punjab has spiralled into a serious law and order issue,” it said. “Farmers who have been protesting since the first week of October, have now increased the intensity of their 15-20 day long agitation and are now blocking the national and state highways and local roads. It has led to great inconvenience to the people of Punjab during the festive season,” it said.
Notably, farmers protesting the “tardy” paddy procurement and lifting, among other issues, staged road blockades in several locations in Punjab on Saturday under the aegis of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha for an indeterminate length of time.Farmers reported protests at the Batala railway station, Badarukhan on the Sangrur-Bathinda highway in Sangrur, Dagru on the Moga-Ferozepur highway in Moga, and Satiali Phul on the Gurdasour-Tanda highway in Gurdaspur.
Seeking the governor’s intervention to end the “tardy” paddy procurement, the BJP delegation’s memorandum said, “We request your good self to intervene and ensure the complete lifting of paddy from mandis and gift farmers of Punjab happiness to celebrate the Diwali and Bandi Chhor Divas with their families. The BJP urged the governor to ask the Punjab government to take all steps to ensure proper supply of DAP and urea for the next sowing season “as this is the next impending disaster Punjab will face”.
Notably, Punjab’s state rice millers refused to mill the paddy until their demands were satisfied, which led to a decrease in the amount of paddy being lifted from mandis, or wholesale marketplaces. The PR-126 variety and other hybrid varieties’ out-turn ratio (post-milling yield) has worried rice millers, who say it may result in significant losses. Amarinder Singh, a BJP politician and former chief minister of Punjab, attacked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday for the state’s “tardy” paddy procurement, claiming that Mann “turned his back on the farmers” who were struggling in the mandis.
