Tardy lifting hits procurement

Amarjit Thind

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

Even as the wheat procurement season draws to a close, tardy lifting of grains has choked mandis across the state. So far, only 30 per cent of the wheat has been carted to warehouses. The remaining is lying in the open.

Not allowing “cartelisation” by truckers following the order of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had the desired effect, but the fallout was that it fell on the commission agents to use tractor-trailers to ferry the procured wheat to its destination.

Charankamal Singh, a commission agent, said there was no space to keep wheat and they were using all available spaces near the mandis, including roadsides. “The movement of traffic is a problem and security of the procured grain is a nightmare. Tractor-trailers can only carry a limited quantity. Inclement weather can cause serious trouble,” he pointed out.

Farmer Kulbir Singh said he had to wait till 2 am on Tuesday for auction officials.

BKU chief BS Rajewal said procurement officials were reluctant to procure fresh arrivals citing fulfilled targets. “Is it the farmers’ fault if there is a bumper crop? Many officials claim that they have run short of gunny bags,” he added.

Arhtiya Gurmail Singh said the non-availability of labour, too, was hampering operations. “Many times trucks or tractors-trailers are loaded but unloading them due to the paucity of labourers is a headache. In many cases, the vehicles are not unloaded for days disrupting smooth ferrying operations,” he said.

The problem was severe in districts where truckers have so far had a monopoly on all lifting operations. Smaller districts also faced a problem, but as truck operators were small-time operators, losing out on the earnings of an entire season was beyond their capabilities, he added.

The only saving grace is that arhtiyas are getting money after the produce is auctioned. Ever since the smart card system is started, officials feed the amount in the cards which are used by arhtiyas to disburse payments to farmers.