Farmers protest tardy lifting of wheat

Fatehgarh Sahib, May 8

Farmers and labourers today held a protest outside the market committee office, Sirhind, against tardy lifting of procured wheat by government agencies. Commission agents also extended their support to them.

The protesters raised slogans against the government as well as officials of various procurement agencies. Officials from Markfed, PUNSUP district manager and officials of the market committee tried to pacify the protesting farmers, but in vain.

Addressing the media, state vice-president of Arhtiya Association Sadhu Ram Bhattmajra and farmer leader Joginder Singh said the lifting of the wheat purchased by the government agencies in Asia’s second biggest grain market of Sirhind was going on at a very slow pace, causing inconvenience to all.

Bhattmajra said about 1 lakh metric tonne (MT) of the procured wheat was lying in the open and was yet to be lifted. He said rain had already affected some bags of the procured wheat and questioned who would be responsible in case of theft or damage to the procured wheat.

He said the fall in moisture content due to heat is reducing the wheat’s weight and it would be termed underweight on reaching the godowns. Due to this, the officials would impose a deduction, causing financial loss to commission agents, he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Parneet Shergill today held a meeting with officials of the procurement agencies and directed them to speed up the lifting process by increasing transportation facilities and labour force. She directed the officials to complete the process of lifting within four days.

The DC said record 2,67,918 MT of wheat had been procured this year. She said around 78 per cent of the wheat had been lifted from the markets and the remaining 22 per cent would soon be lifted in the coming days.

The DC said the Food Corporation of India and the other agencies directly send the procured wheat to various states through railways. But due to non-availability of railway rakes, they were facing a problem and the lifting process has become slow, she said. But it has been decided that the procured wheat would be stored in the market, the DC added.