Farmers serve 2-day ultimatum on govt

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rewari, March 29

Farmers have served a two-day ultimatum on the government stating that they would launch an agitation if mustard procurement is not started by Friday.

The decision was taken at a meeting held under the aegis of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) here today. BKS district president Bhajan Lal, who presided over the meeting, accused the BJP government of making life difficult for farmers by not procuring their produce.

Rewari, Deputy Commissioner Yash Garg, sensing the mood of the farmers, assured them that HAFED would purchase their mustard produce from tomorrow. Earlier, farmers organised a protest at the mini-secretariat and raised slogans against the government.

Over 60,000 quintals of mustard have already been sold below the minimum support price (MSP) at the local grain market in the last two weeks as the government has not started the procurement process. The MSP for mustard has been fixed at Rs 3,700 a quintal while private buyers are purchasing the crop at Rs 3,300 to Rs 3,500 per quintal and hence farmers are making a loss of Rs 200 to Rs 400 per quintal.

Ram Kishan Mehlawat, state secretary of the BKS, said they had given two days to the government to begin mustard procurement. “We will launch an agitation if the government fails to start mustard procurement in two days, as farmers are forced to sell their crop in loss,” he added.

Meanwhile, Garg told The Tribune that HAFED would start procuring mustard for its oil mills from tomorrow. However, no information had so far been received about mustard procurement by the government through its agency NAFED, he added.

Asked whether HAFED would procure the crop at the MSP, Garg said they were yet to receive directives in this regard.