Farmers stuck outside Karnal mandi for 4 hrs

Tribune News Service

Karnal, October 6

The slow speed of the Meri Fasal, Mera Byora portal in generating gate passes to farmers to enter the grain market here resulted in a long traffic jam on the service lanes of the National Highway-44 on Tuesday morning.

Farmers waited for around four hours for their turn to enter the grain market. Long queues of tractors were seen stranded on both sides of the service lanes.

The farmers said that even after apprising Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar of the portal’s slow speed in generating gate passes, the matter was not resolved.

The Chief Minister had visited the mandi on Monday to take stock of the procurement.

Another farmer Sahab Singh, who was waiting for his turn since 7 am, questioned Khattar for giving farmers a false hope of resolving the problem.

Rakesh Kumar, standing beside him, chimed in. “Gate passes should be done away with. Instead, messages sent to farmers for bringing their produce to the mandi should be considered as gate passes,” he said.

Rajnish Chaudhary, president, Karnal arhtiyas’ association, seconded his views.

Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said the matter had been brought to the notice of the higher authorities and it would be resolved soon.