Agencies yield to protests in Amritsar, start buying wheat

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, April 25

Following a stalemate over specification issues, the government agencies finally started procurement of wheat here this evening, but not before the farmers staged massive protests in different parts of the district.

Sukhbir Singh Sodhi, Amritsar district mandi officer, said government agencies like the FCI and Pungrain had started procurement at Bhagtanwala grain market in Amritsar, besides Attari and Jandiala.

Harjit Singh, Azad Kisan Sangharsh Committee leader, said though procurement had started, the farmers were not getting the MSP of Rs 1,450 as the agencies were imposing a cut of Rs 11 per quintal.

Besides, he alleged that not much staff had been deployed to make the purchase of wheat while heaps of wheat were mounting in the markets with each passing day. He also alleged that gunny bags were not being provided to the farmers whose produce had been purchased.

Sodhi, however, said the farmers would not suffer any loss as the government had already made it clear that it would compensate for any cut imposed on the MSP.

Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat said the matter had been sorted out and the government agencies were procuring wheat. He confirmed that some wheat samples had been collected and these would be sent to a Chandigarh lab for testing.

Earlier, farmers in Amritsar, Ajnala and Jandiala Guru staged protests. They resorted to road blockade against delay in procurement. This led to huge traffic jams, causing inconvenience to the commuters.

Tarn Taran Deputy Commission BS Dhaliwal also stated that the government agencies had already procured 1 lakh tonnes of wheat.