Farmers upset over tardy pace of lifting wheat

Tribune News Service

Malout, April 24

The tardy pace of wheat lifting in the district has irked farmers. A number of purchase centres are bursting at the seams with bags of wheat. As a result, farmers are unable to find a place for their produce in these centres.

Sources in the district administration said till Monday evening, nearly 4.83 lakh MT of wheat had been purchased across the district, but only 2 lakh MT of wheat was lifted. Further, the officials concerned failed to lift the wheat in 48 hours after its purchase at a number of places.

For instance, as per the total purchase, nearly 3.7 lakh MT of wheat was to be lifted in the district till Monday evening, but the figure remained just half of it.

Meanwhile, Muktsar Deputy Commissioner Sumeet Jarangal held a meeting with the officials concerned on Tuesday and asked them to speed up the procurement work. “The situation has improved now and the lifting work is picking up pace. I have directed all the procurement agencies to buy wheat immediately after its arrival in the mandis and make payments in this regard,” said the Deputy Commissioner.

An official engaged in the wheat procurement process said the situation would improve after the next two days. “The arrival of wheat will decrease after two more days. Most of the farmers brought their produce to mandis in the last three-four days, leading to a glut there,” said the officer.

Meanwhile, sources informed that till last evening, just about 13,700 MT of wheat was lifted from the focal points in Bariwala, 36,700 MT from Gidderbaha, 82,800 MT from Malout and 70,600 MT from Muktsar.

On the other hand, the Akalis have been criticising the Congress government for a delay in wheat lifting. It is to mention here that earlier some farmers had even accused commission agents of overweighing empty wheat bags and cheating them.