BKU seeks hike in permissible moisture content in paddy

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, October 8

The Bharti Kisan Union-Kadian (BKU) made a fervent plea to the Centre to increase the acceptable moisture content in paddy for procurement from 17 to 22 per cent and discoloured grain from four to eight per cent as the paddy crop had suffered extensive damage due to recent rains that lashed all parts of Punjab.

Addressing a meeting of the state committee here on Monday, BKU chief Harmeet Singh Kadian rejected the meager hike of Rs 105 per quintal in MSP of wheat, which he claimed was grossly disproportionate to spurt in the price of diesel, farm chemicals and other inputs. “The government has played a cruel joke with the farmers by going back from its promise of providing 50 per cent more than the total input cost,” he added.

Secretary general Jagdev Singh Kaniawali and senior vice-president Kuldeep Singh Chakkarbhaike alleged that the so called announcement of the state government of providing agricultural implements on 50 per cent subsidy to farmers had proved to be a farce because the Department of Agriculture had stopped accepting bank drafts on September 1, 2018, at a time when the farmers did not have enough money.

“The subsidized sale of farm implements should be made a permanent feature and the government should make such machinery and implements accessible to the farmers which prove practically useful for stubble management,” they said.

The meeting noted with concern that paddy crop was sown in some 32 lakh hectares area in the state while as per the government’s own data subsidized machinery/implements were given which covered only about five lakh hectares. In other words, paddy growers in some 27 lakh hectares area did not have means to manage stubble without burning it unless the government provided a subsidy of Rs 6,000 per acre for this purpose, opined the BKU functionaries.