Wheat glut in mandis across Haryana

Tribune News Service

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, April 19

The shortage of migrant labour is one of the reasons behind the wheat glut in grain markets across the state. With just 27.58% of purchased wheat having been lifted from the grain markets, the state authorities have directed the respective districts to arrange additional vehicles and extra labour to enable 24-hour functioning of storage godowns of all the procurement agencies.

Taking stock

34,30,932 MT: Total wheat arrived

23,19,837 MT: Wheat procured

6,39,482 MT: Lifted till Thursday

Labourers in Bihar for poll

Most of the labourers engaged in the loading and unloading of wheat are migrants from Bihar. With the election process at its peak in many parts of Bihar, people have stayed back in their homes to participate in the electoral process. — Officials

The officials and arhtiyas said the harvesting of the wheat crop in a shorter span of time has resulted in heavy arrival of the grain in the mandis. But the lifting agencies were not able to match up the huge arrival of grain in the mandis.

The officials maintained that the lifting contractors and arhtiyas complained that there was a shortage of labour for loading and unloading of the wheat in the vehicles. “Most of the labourers engaged in this work are migrants from Bihar. With the election process at peak in many parts of Bihar, people have stayed back in their homes to participate in the electoral process. Bihar is having polling in all seven phases in different districts,” said an official, adding the issue had come for discussion with the contractors.

Pawan Garg, former president of grain market association, and arhtiyas said there was a shortage of migrant labour in the grain market. “The elections have affected the migration of labourers from Bihar to Haryana,” he said.

The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department has written a letter to all the Deputy Commissioners expressing concern over slow lifting of the procured foodgrain from the mandis. The letter also quoted the arrival, procurement and lifting figures, which indicated that 34,30,932 MT of wheat has arrived in the mandis, of which 23,19,837 MT has been procured. But only 6,39,482 MT has been lifted till yesterday evening.

There is a forecast of rain in the coming few days and there may be damage to wheat lying in the mandis, the letter stated, adding it has become imperative to take certain measures to expedite the lifting process.

It also directed the district officials to engage other transporters and arhtiyas other than approved contractors to arrange extra labour and enable 24-hour functioning of the storage godowns of the procurement agencies.

The situation in Bhiwani is worse as only 6.6% (1,067 MT) of the total procured wheat of 16,176 MT has been lifted till today. The situation is no better in Hisar as only 8% of the wheat has been lifted from the markets so far.

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