In poll year, gunny bag crunch puts govt on defensive

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 25

In an election year and amid a raging Covid-19 pandemic, wheat procurement, which had earned Capt Amarinder Singh accolades last year, has put the Punjab Government on the defensive this year.

The mandis are overflowing with wheat and there is an apparent shortage of gunny bags. In an election year, this is proving to be a ready fodder for the Opposition parties, which are demanding that some heads roll for the inability of the state government to arrange requisite number of gunny bags. However, no one is pondering about who is to be blamed for the gunny bag crunch, which is primarily responsible for the slow lifting.

Gunny bags are allotted to states by Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, months before the wheat is harvested. Strangely, this year, against a requirement of 5.52 lakh bales of gunny bags or 2,760 lakh bags, the state was allocated four lakh bales or 2,000 lakh bags. But the actual number of bags that have come to Punjab from the poll-bound West Bengal jute mills is 1.48 lakh bales or 740 lakh bags. In addition, Punjab was allowed by the Centre to procure 66,000 plastic bags. But because of Covid-induced restrictions in Maharashtra and Gujarat, a majority of plastic bags could not reach the state in time. Many in the state government attribute this “deliberate short supply of jute bags to the state” to political stand-off of the state government with the BJP-led Centre, because of the ongoing farmers struggle.

Interestingly, when the Punjab Government repeatedly took up the matter with the Centre, it was only two days after the procurement began on April 10 that the state was allowed to use the “once used gunny bags”. A tender was called on April 16 for procuring 1.5 lakh bales, but till date, seven bidders that came forward could supply just 700 bales, a senior officer in the Food and Supply department said.

“The bags that have come are of very poor quality to the extent that wheat starts spilling from numerous pores in them. I do not know if wheat stored in these bags will remain fit for consumption, as it would be subject to pest infestation and vagaries of weather,” rued Mahinder Krishan Chand Arora, a Rajpura-based commission agent.

Punjab Food and Supply Director Ravi Bhagat said the state government was trying its best to arrange more bags at the earliest. “It is a false narrative that the procurement is mismanaged. It is in fact going on smoothly. There is a glut in mandis because the arrival this year is much higher than the last year’s — an increase of 300 per cent today as compared to the same day last year.

Of the 86.74 lakh metric tonnes of wheat arrival, 83.71 LMT has been procured and 62 per cent of this has been lifted. The daily arrival of wheat is around 10 LMT, and our average daily lifting is 4.98 LMT,” he said.