Hit by note ban, growers threaten to dump potatoes outside banks

Gagandeep Singh

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 20

The Jalandhar Potato Growers Association today threatened to dump their unsold produce outside banks if the Union Government failed to waive the loans taken against the crop.

They said they had been affected badly by the demonetisation. Since the produce could not be sold in the last two seasons, growers were unable to repay their loan, besides being forced to pay labour cost from their own pocket, they said.

The association has already written to the Prime Minister, Union Agriculture Minister and the Union Finance Minister, seeking their intervention on the matter. The farmers want their outstanding principal amount and interest be waived.

Jaswinder Singh Sangha, association president, said the potato growers in Punjab had suffered a major jolt following the demonetisation. He claimed that there was no buyer of the crop worth Rs 1,500 crore in the recent months.

“The last crop of potato seeds was ruined as in the first week of November, supply to West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka was hit as buyers had no money to buy potato seeds,” he said.

“Under such circumstances, we want that potato should be purchased under the market intervention scheme by government agencies such as Nafed and Markfed. The growers should also be allowed to export their crop to countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Russia and Sri Lanka,” Sangha added.

The JPGA also suggested the government that to enhance the marketing prospect of the crop, the potato should be supplied for the mid-day meal programmes and food processing industry should be promoted.

They also demanded a subsidy on cold storage charges at the rate of Rs 100 per bag of 50kg.