23 wheat growers turn up at Palwal mandi

Tribune News Service

Palwal, April 20

In all, 23 farmers turned up at the local grain market on the first day of the wheat procurement on Monday.

A maximum of 25 farmers are allowed on a single day. Almost half of the total wheat growers in the district have registered on “Meri Fasal, Mera Beora” portal, set up by the state government, for farmers for which seven procurement centres have been set up.

Narveer Singh, Market Committee secretary, said while the details of the total procurement done on Monday were still to be compiled, all measures to ensure proper sanitisation and social distancing were taken.

Claiming that the produce of only those farmers was being procured who have registered themselves on the portal, Narveer said while 13,000 farmers had already registered, the process was still on. Meanwhile, information about the date of procurement is given to the farmers 24 hours prior to their turn, he added. A total of 7,706 quintals of mustard had already been procured here in the past three days, he added.

However, condemning the procurement strategy, local BKU leader Ratan Singh Sorot said binding the farmers to bring their produce on a certain day or date and not accepting it later was gross injustice as many of them may not be able to arrange transportation on a certain day and they must be given another date. He said not accepting the produce of the farmers of the villages falling under the containment or buffer zone was also unfortunate as the growers were under huge stress.