Sunflower crop from Punjab at Haryana's Shahabad mandi, BKU objects
Nitish Sharma
Tribune News Service
Kurukshetra, June 12
Members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union objected to a stock of nearly 80 quintal sunflower seeds allegedly procured from Punjab and being unloaded at a shop in Shahabad grain market. The farmer union accused the commission agents of buying sunflower seeds from Punjab at cheaper rates and selling them at minimum support price (MSP) in Shahabad.
While the MSP for sunflower seeds is Rs5,650 a quintal, the private players are offering around Rs4,300 to 4,500 a quintal to farmers.
Crop registered through e-NAM
The crop belonged to two farmers of Rajpura, Punjab. Their crop was registered through e-NAM portal which got auctioned in the private market.
BKU spokesman Rakesh Bains said, “A total 238 bags of sunflower seeds were brought from Punjab and were being offloaded at a shop in the grain market. When we reached there, the commission agent who was getting the stock offloaded, failed to give satisfactory reply about the sunflower seeds. Such practice is not possible without the support from the government officials. While the local farmers are struggling to sell their produce, as the procurement agencies have stopped buying after their quota for sunflower procurement exhausted, commission agents are bringing the produce from other states to reap profit. There are a large number of farmers who are yet to get registred at the ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal as it is yet to be opened.”
After the farmers raised objection, the market committee officials took the stock into their custody. The BKU has requested the Deputy Commissioner to get the matter investigated.
Shahabad grain market committee secretary Krishan Malik said, “The crop belonged to two farmers of Rajpura, Punjab. Their crop was registered through e-NAM portal which got auctioned in the private market. Only the crop of registered Haryana’s farmers will be purchased at MSP by the procurement agency.”
