India News | Congress' Kumari Selja Targets Haryana Govt over 'slow' Lifting of Crops
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Congress general secretary Kumari Selja on Tuesday targeted the BJP government in Haryana over "slow" lifting of the farmers' crops which have arrived in the grain markets and said this has resulted in the produce piling up in the mandis.
Chandigarh, Apr 16 (PTI) Congress general secretary Kumari Selja on Tuesday targeted the BJP government in Haryana over "slow" lifting of the farmers' crops which have arrived in the grain markets and said this has resulted in the produce piling up in the mandis.
Selja said the BJP government in the state, which claims to be farmer-friendly, "has today become the biggest enemy of the farmers".
"Grain is scattered in the state's mandis and despite the MET Indian Meteorological Department) warning of rain, the government did not make any arrangements to protect the grain," she said in a statement here.
"While the inflow of wheat and mustard is strong in the state's grain markets, the slow lifting of these crops has resulted in the produce piling up in the mandis," the former Union minister said.
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She said wheat and mustard lying in the open sky in the grain markets got wet due to the rain in some districts of the state on Saturday. Despite this, no accelerated pace in the lifting of crops was observed in the grain markets. The weather department had issued a rain alert days in advance, but still arrangements were not made, she alleged.
Meanwhile, the officials said the procurement process is progressing smoothly across all the mandis in Haryana.
They also said necessary supplies such as crates, tarpaulins, gunny bags, and other essential equipment are available for the procurement of rabi crops in every mandi across the state.
The Congress leader, however, claimed that there is currently a significant shortage of gunny bags in the state's mandis, which is hindering the lifting process.
Kumari Selja further claimed that in the grain markets of Charkhi Dadri, Sirsa and Bhiwani districts, large quantities of mustard, which have not yet been picked up, are lying at the procurement centres.
She said the crops are lying in the open in some grain markets of Hisar district where there is no shed arrangement. The same conditions prevail in Sonipat and Rohtak. In Jhajjar and Rewari too, crops are lying in the open, and the lifting is slow or has not happened at all in many grain markets, she added.
"The worst situation regarding lifting is in Karnal and Kaithal, while in Ambala, lifting has not even started," she claimed.
She said the government's claims of adequate arrangements in the mandis were limited only to paper. If the government knew that procurement was to start, it should have been fully prepared, Selja said.
Meanwhile, until Monday, nearly 9.73 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and about 5.43 lakh metric tonnes of mustard have been procured by various procuring agencies. The farmers' produce arriving in the mandis is being promptly lifted within the designated time frame, said an official statement.
Strict directives have been issued to all the procurement agencies to safeguard the crops from adverse weather conditions like rain and storms during the procurement process. Thus far, there have been no reports of crop damage in any mandi due to the recent rainfall, the statement said.
Senior administrative officers have been assigned to conduct regular inspections at the mandis across all districts. These officers are diligently visiting their designated districts, and taking stock of the mandis so that the farmers do not face any kind of problem in selling their crops, the statement said.
Additionally, strict instructions have been issued to ensure that payments for the purchased crops are made within 72 hours. Till now, an amount of about Rs 1500 crore has been distributed to the farmers on crop purchase, it said.
As many as 417 centres have been set up for wheat procurement in the state, 107 for the purchase of mustard, 11 for the purchase of gram and 25 for the purchase of barley.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)