Millers want more paddy to process
Rice milers of the district have demanded from the state government to allot them more paddy to process in the coming season. The millers from different parts of the district, under the banner of Rice Millers Association, Tarn Taran, passed a resolution in this regard. District president of the association, Avtar Singh Taneja, said in the 2022-23 season, the FCI and other state agencies procured 10 lakh tons of paddy. He said only 1.13 lakh tons of paddy was allotted to the rice mills of Tarn Taran district for processing and the remaining 8.87 lakh tons was allotted to other districts. He said this border district had been allotting 40 per cent extra paddy to provide employment to youths which had been stopped for the last three years. Taneja said the rice millers had completed their processing by March 31 and the processed rice had been deposited with the FCI before March 31 while other district had been left behind in the processing work. The millers have appealed to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to allot the whole stock of 10 lakh tons of paddy to mills in the district as the crop is produced by the farmers of Tarn Taran only. Taneja said that in sending the crop to other parts of the state, more expenditure is incurred on carriage and allotting it to the local millers would prove to be more helpful.
Residents of Sangatpur village in Chohla Sahib block of Tarn Taran district are not even willing to accept that the ‘Mechanised Silage Production and Processing Centre’, also known as ‘Silage Project’, had ever been set up in the area. The controversial project was to come up in the village under the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission sponsored by the Union Government. The Rural Development Department, on January 5, 2022, revealed that the project was to come up on 2.5 acres of common land of the village panchayat at a cost of Rs 660.57 lakh. Punjab Agro, the nodal agency, in its letter to the Joint Development Commissioner (JDC), dated March 24, 2023, said with the approval of the state government, the Punjab Agri Export Corporation Ltd (PAGREXCO) had purchased the machinery and the payment had also been made. The letter said that farmers had started growing maize crop in the area to be used in the factory to manufacture silage. Bhag Singh and Gutej Kaur, besides other farmers of Sangatpur village residing in front of the proposed land, however, said no factory had come up on that land ever. Officials of the revenue department said the land had not been transferred in the name of Punjab Agro, nor had the building been erected. Not a single advertisement had ever been released urging farmers to grow maize to be used in the factory to manufacture silage. Under the guidelines, the link road leading to the factory site is to be widened to 16.5 feet for the easy plying of crop-loaded vehicles to the site. District officials said that ignoring all ground realities, the Joint Development Commissioner, Rural Development Department, had ordered to release an amount of Rs 2.5 crore to PAGREXCO without delay and also to make arrangements for the release of the remaining amount immediately for the project. Narinder Singh, Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO)-cum-Nodal Officer for the project refused to comment and said only the senior district officials were aware of the details. The website of the Union Government says these types of projects cannot be started after April 1, 2022. District officials said that in the present circumstances, it was impossible for them to release a huge amount of Rs 660.57 lakh by allegedly violating set norms. K. Siva Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary–cum-Finance Commissioner (Rural Development & Panchayat Department) and Amit Kumar, Joint Development Commissioner, not only refused to respond to phone calls, they also did not respond to SMS or WhatsApp messages. (Contributed by Gurbaxpuri)
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