Punjab farmers bearing the brunt of loss as parties resort to blame game over slow paddy lifting
The Punjab government’s delay in notifying the Fortified Rice Kernels Milling Policy has caused a two-and-a-half-month halt in rice milling, leading to mounting losses for farmers amid ongoing protests by rice millers. As the blame game continues between AAP and BJP, farmers face a bleak Diwali. Union MoS Ravneet Singh Bittu criticized AAP for inadequate monitoring of paddy varieties, while AAP leaders accused the Centre of discrimination.
The Punjab government’s delay in notifying the Fortified Rice Kernels Milling Policy, from the usual November 15, 2023 to January 21, 2024, resulted in a two-and-a-half-month stall in rice milling. (File photo) With paddy not being being lifted in Punjab due to protests by rice millers and BJP, Congress and AAP playing blame game over tardy procurement, farmers in the state are at the receiving end of mounting losses and are staring at a black Diwali this year. While senior AAP leaders have blamed the BJP-led Centre for “meting step-motherly treatment to the state and launching a witch-hunt against farmers for having protested against the farm laws in 2020,” Union MoS Ravneet Singh Bittu said that the AAP government did not check the paddy varieties being sown by farmers.
Bittu said on Wednesday that millers told him that PR-126 was being cultivated for past seven years. “But the state government created such a hype around the variety that the farmers picked up seeds of other hybrid varieties because the seed of PR-126 was not available. Now, the farmers are facing the problem. PR-126 and other hybrids were short duration varieties which were sown in potato belt in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Kapurthala. All this came out when we asked millers to speak the truth,” Bittu said, adding that the AAP government was responsible for the chaos.
However, a number of Cabinet ministers in Punjab, including Harpal Cheema, Aman Arora, Hardeep Singh Mundian, Lal Chand Kataruchak, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, party MP Malwinder Singh Kang, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, had echoed that the Centre was avenging the farmers protest of 2020 by “meting step-motherly treatment”.
Reiterating the Centre’s assurance, Union Food Minister Prahlad Joshi had on Wednesday said that the Government of India has provided a month-wise plan allocating maximum rail rakes to Punjab for expedited evacuation of existing rice stocks.
Punjab, which currently holds 130 lakh tonnes of rice, faces logistics hurdles as it aims to procure 124 lakh tonnes in the current season. “The highest priority has been given to Punjab and Haryana for evacuation of the stock. We have given a detailed plan to the Punjab government on creation of space. …Highest number of rakes have been provided…,” Joshi told reporters, addressing concerns over procurement delays.
“The Centre has clearly without any ambiguity clarified to Punjab that we will purchase the committed quantity in time,” Joshi had said, adding that CM Bhagwant Mann had expressed satisfaction with the central government’s assurance. Bittu’s attack and Joshi’s assurance was followed by a press conference by senior BJP leader Harjeet Singh Grewal on Thursday who said that the AAP government and some farmer organisations are responsible for the delay in lifting paddy from Punjab mandis. While addressing the media in Chandigarh, Grewal, who was accompanied by state media head Vineet Joshi, added that it was not the Centre’s fault.
The Punjab government’s delay in notifying the Fortified Rice Kernels Milling Policy, from the usual November 15, 2023 to January 21, 2024, resulted in a two-and-a-half-month stall in rice milling. When there is no rice what will the Centre transport, Grewal asked.
He added that farm unions contributed to the delay by blocking railway services twice —first in February and then again in April-May for 40 days this year. “With a four-month delay because of the AAP government and another two-month dely due to farm unions, how can the BJP government at the Centre be held responsible?” Grewal asked. He added that the AAP-led Punjab government must immediately purchase paddy from the mandis under Clause 14 of the Punjab Custom Milling Policy 2023-24 to provide relief to the farmers. Grewal and Joshi alleged that the AAP government is deliberately stalling paddy procurement in the mandis to retaliate for its crushing defeat in 10 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab. “If this is not true,” they asked, “why is the AAP government refusing to buy paddy despite receiving Rs 43,000 crore from the Centre for its purchase? Why is it not procuring the paddy under single custody,” they asked. When asked Mazdoor sangharsh committee (KMSC) coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher said that both the Centre and the state have ensured that they have a black Diwali this time.
“Even if they sort the milling issue now, 50 per cent of our farmers have already sold their produce with a cut to arhtiyas. They have refused to give us full MSP. Even if they find a solution, farmers have already suffered losses. They are never going to give us this money back.” He added that for the past 24 days, ever since the procurement started officially, neither of the governments have tried to find a solution. “This blame game is also after an understanding. Has Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann or AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal given any statement? In the past, successive CMs have gone to Delhi to find a solution whenever a problem arose. But these people did not try to do that. If they try it honestly, the solution will emerge,” Pandher said, adding that both Centre and AAP were troubling the farmers.
Harmeet Singh Kadian of Bharti Kisan Union (Kadian) also warned the government to consider that festival was approaching and the farmers problems should be sorted. He said that the farmers were being “looted”in the mandis as they were paying a cut of Rs 8 to 10 per kg of paddy. He warned the government of a “law and order” situation if the issue was not sorted immediately. He accused 92 MLAs of AAP for not raising the issue at the right time.
Source Link : https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/punjab-farmers-loss-aap-bjp-govt-blame-game-paddy-9637809/
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