Shortage of gunny bags, transportation facilities hit procurement process in Jalandhar district

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 21

For over the past week, Satnam Singh has been tirelessly waiting to sell his crop at the Lohian Khas grain market. Every season he produces around 500-600 quintals of wheat. However, this time, he says he is struggling for his produce to be lifted.

“I started harvesting my crop from April 10 onwards. Subsequently, I came here to sell my produce on time. After the confusion over Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), now the the shortage of “bardana”(gunny bags) is impeding the procurement process. Apparently, there is an acute shortage of gunny bags here. For the first time, we are experiencing this. Till last year, the procurement would be finished within a few hours of reaching the mandi, but this time we are forced to spend even nights in the grain market,” said Satnam.

The shortage of gunny bags in the grain markets of both the districts — Jalandhar and Kapurthala — has slowed down the procurement process. Unable to sell their produce on time, farmers have even started leaving for the Singhu border. They say they will return only after proper arrangements are made in the grain markets.

Harpreet Singh, a farmer from Kapurthala, said, “While my tractor-trailer is still in the grain market, I have left for the Singhu border to join the protest. I had especially come for harvesting and procurement, but things are not favourable here. Therefore, I had to keep my 100 quintals of wheat in the grain market. My relatives are looking after my harvest. Even after approaching the officials concerned, we could not get gunny bags.”

For the crop produced in around one acre of land, as many as 75 gunny bags are needed. And for hundreds of quintals of wheat, farmers require thousands of gunny bags, which are unavailable.

Gurpreet Singh Atwal, a Bhogpur-based farmer, is also experiencing the same situation at the Bhogpur grain market.

Meanwhile, commission agents (arhtiyas) claimed that the situation was entirely different at the outbreak of the pandemic last year. Nitin Wadhwa, a member of the Arhtiyas’ Association, Kapurthala, stated that the shortage of gunny bags was not a new challenge. “But this time the acute shortage has exposed the lackadaisical attitude of the government, which is trying to give mandis into private hands. We have been told to purchase gunny bags on our own and the government will reimburse the payment later. Moreover, it has been a year and we have not received payments of last season so far,” said Wadhwa.

A gunny bag costs around Rs 41.90 in the market and this year even farmers are being asked to pay Rs13 per bag.

Tinu: Lack of basic facilities at mandis

SAD MLA Pawan Tinu said the farmers reaching smaller mandis were at the receiving end. “In the absence of transportation facilities, farmers are compelled to bring their crop to smaller mandis that don't even have proper sheds and tarpaulins to cover their crop. Besides, 55,000 quintals of wheat has arrived in the Patara grain market, 52,000 in Raipur Farala, 50,000 in Alawalpur, 24,000 in Ladhra and 26,000 in Kandhala. Hence, the government needs to make proper arrangements to cover the farmers’ produce,” said Tinu.

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