Farmers: Crack whip on spurious seed dealers

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 30

Farmers from across the region, who had mistakenly purchased spurious varieties of paddy sold by unauthorised dealers in the state, on Saturday demanded action against the accused and compensation from the government for the losses suffered by them.

In all, 20 farmers of the district gathered at Jamsher village near here on Satuday and shared their problems. While some farmers said they purchased PR-128 and PR-129 varieties of paddy from Ludhiana, others said they got it from seed stores based in Lambra and Shahkot.

Gurminder Singh, a farmer from Sikanderpur village of Adampur, said, “We sow paddy on 20-22 acres. For some portion, we had bought a sack of 30-kg paddy seed of new variety thinking it to be high-yielding. We paid Rs2,500 to the seed company based in Ludhiana. When we had sown these seeds, only 40 per cent of them germinated. Most of them turned yellow and did not survive. Now, we realise that we have been looted and the actual varieties of seeds were to be sold only through the Krishi Vigyan Kendras, that too for Rs70 per kg on a trial basis.”

All farmers quoted different rates on which they purchased the seeds, some of whom even said they had paid Rs200 per kg.

Cong MLAs lash out at Harsimrat

Lashing out at Union Minister Harsimrat Badal, Congress MLAs Darshan Singh Brar, Barindermeet Singh Pahra and Davinder Singh Ghubaya on Saturday alleged Harsimrat was seeking an inquiry from the Central agency into the alleged seed scam, but she had forgotten that she used her influence to close the ED probe into a high-profile drug peddling case during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government in the state. TNS