Glut in Punjab mandis as rice shellers offer storage but refuse to mill paddy

Tarsem Saini, president of Punjab Rice Sheller Association said that they are acceptable to store government’s paddy astatine their mills. “But we volition not statesman the milling process until our issues are resolved. The authorities tin store the paddy astatine our facilities and instrumentality documentation of the full banal from each mill. We person done this earlier successful 1999 and adjacent successful 2005-06 erstwhile akin issues arose,” helium said.

The concerns of atom shellers stem from a scope of ongoing disputes with procurement agencies, including demands for creating abstraction successful the authorities godowns truthful that milled atom tin beryllium delivered to the authorities agencies by March 31, 2025, amended dirage rates and assurances related to milling contracts. Saini claims that authorities officials from procurement agencies are exerting undue unit connected atom shellers to store paddy solely for milling purposes, alternatively than allowing it to beryllium stored arsenic a buffer to easiness the existent glut.

“When the authorities tin store wheat successful our shellers, wherefore not paddy?” helium asked, criticising the reluctance of immoderate officials to judge the connection of retention without milling commitments.

A elder serviceman successful Markfed alleged that definite officials from procurement agencies are progressive successful corrupt practices, accepting payments from arhtiyas and atom shellers to guarantee that lone high-quality paddy is sent to circumstantial mills for milling. If atom shellers simply store paddy without milling it, the favoritism betwixt bully and poor-quality atom becomes irrelevant, perchance disrupting this strategy of favoritism, helium added.

Saini besides confirmed this practice.

For now, the superior interest is to guarantee that the harvested paddy is moved retired of mandis and stored securely. “There is nary safer spot for the paddy than our atom mills,” Saini said. The authorities government, however, is yet to respond to this.

Meanwhile, protesting against tardy lifting of paddy from the mandis, BKU Ugrahan connected Thursday started an indefinite protestation astatine 25 toll plazas. From Friday onwards, protests volition besides beryllium started extracurricular the houses of salient BJP leaders and arsenic galore AAP ministers, MLAs and MPs told Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president BKU Ugrahan.

Toll plazas person been made taxation escaped for wide commuters successful 14 districts of Punjab. Four specified locations are successful Bathinda, 3 each successful Taran Taran and Amritsar and 2 each successful Ferozepur, Barnala, Sangrur and Patiala portion 1 each successful Ludhiana, Fazilka, Muktsar, Mohali, Jalandhar and Moga districts of Punjab. In Ludhiana farmers staged protestation astatine Chowkimaan toll plaza successful Jagraon, Darapur successful Moga portion Giddranwali successful Fazilka.

In Moga, Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said, “If creaseless procurement of paddy and contiguous payments are not started, continuous protests volition beryllium held extracurricular the homes of elder BJP leaders, arsenic good arsenic as galore AAP MLAs, MPs, and different ministers from Friday.”

Jhanda Singh Jethuke, elder vice president of BKU Ugrahan said, “We request uninterrupted procurement of paddy astatine afloat MSP. Farmers should beryllium compensated for paddy already sold astatine beneath MSP. We besides request compensation for the PR 126 assortment of paddy, which yields little than Pusa 44.”

The authorities has advised america to sow PR 126 for h2o conservation purposes and present they should compensated our losses, said Shingara Singh Mann, Bathinda portion president of BKU Ugrahan.