Abohar: Farmers end dharna after Cotton Corporation of India relents

Abohar, December 5

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Farmers and arhtiyas ended their day-long dharna on the Abohar-Fazilka-Malout highway bypass outside the new grain market on Tuesday after the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) assured them of starting procurement of Narma cotton in Abohar from Thursday.

The CCI had on November 29 informed the local market committee that cotton purchase would be stopped the next day. On November 30, hundreds of farmers had organised a protest, alleging that the CCI officials had connived with private traders to leave them at the mercy of the latter.

A day later, two farmers had sat on a hunger strike outside the SDM office but they were persuaded to end the fast by the administration with an assurance that cotton purchase at MSP would be resumed. However, that did not happen for a couple of days. CCI officials had sought relaxation in norms from higher authorities, claiming that quality of Narma cotton was affected by the Pink Bollworm attack and untimely rains.

Today, members of BKU (Khosa), the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and Arhtiya Association had staged a dharna on the highway bypass. The city police had to divert vehicular traffic after hundreds of travellers got stuck on both sides of the road. Later, SDM Ravinder Singh Arora and CCI officer Vijay Kumar reached the spot and assured protesters that procurement would begin in the grain market here from December 7.

Officials said each farmer should bring only 30 quintals of Narma cotton to the market to enable smooth procurement. BKU (Khosa) state secretary Gunwant Singh demanded that only Narma cotton of Punjab farmers should be purchased by CCI and arrivals from neighbouring states should not be allowed. He added that no private trader should be allowed to exploit farmers. — OC

Crop purchase to begin on Dec 7

• Farmer bodies staged a dharna on the highway bypass on Tuesday, seeking resumption of procurement
• The protest led to traffic chaos in the area, with hundreds of travellers stuck. SDM Ravinder Singh Arora and CCI officer Vijay Kumar reached the spot
• CCI assured that procurement would resume on December 7. Officials said each farmer should not bring over 30 quintals of Narma cotton to enable smooth procurement