94,264 tn wheat procured in Haryana on first day

Chandigarh, Apr 20 (PTI) Nearly 94,264 metric tonne of wheat was procured by government procurement agencies on the opening day, but main opposition Congress claimed there was complete mismanagement and farmers had to face lot of problems.

While mustard procurement by government procuring agencies began on April 15, that of wheat began on April 20.

Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and Cooperation Department, Sanjeev Kaushal, stated that 8,693 farmers reported at the 163 procurement centres for procurement of mustard in the state and 9,729 wheat farmers reported at the wheat procurement centres.

Over 1,800 procurement centres have been set up for procuring wheat. The number has been increased nearly four-fold this time to avoid crowding and ensure social distancing in view of the Covid-19-induced situation.

Kaushal said that about 24,987.25 metric tonnes of mustard and 94,264.78 metric tonnes of wheat were purchased by the procurement agencies.

While the government officials maintained that procurement process has been going on smoothly, the Congress alleged there is complete mismanagement.

The BJP-JJP government has completely failed the farmers as there was chaos in the wheat procurement centres all across the state, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged in a press conference on Monday which he addressed through video conferencing.

On the opening day of procurement of wheat, Khattar government has completely failed. In mandis at Kaithal, Guhla Cheeka, Narwana, Uchana, Narnaund, Jind, Mahendergarh, Ballabhgarh, complete mismanagement was witnessed.

At some places, procuring agencies were missing, at some places no proper arrangements for gunny bags was made while at some places Arhitiyas or Commission agents are on strike, he said.

Surjewala said that farmers were very disappointed to find alleged all round failure of the procurement arrangements in the state.

Whichever procurement centres the farmer reached today with their hard earned produce, they faced problems. At some places, only four quintals of wheat was being bought even when farmers had brought 40 quintals, at some places there was no packing material; while other places lacked labourers for loading and unloading, he further stated.

Despite problems faced by farmers, the Khattar government is in deep slumber. The situation is same as when Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned, he alleged.

He also accused the Khattar government of trying to break the old arrangement of farmers-Arhitiyas .

At some places Arhitiyas had gone on strike alleging that government wanted to keep them out of the procurement process, he said.

He also asked why the state government was silent now despite earlier promising giving a bonus of Rs 125 per quintal over and above wheat MSP.