Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait has called a protest against delay in paddy procurement
Farmers will protest outside the homes of MLAs in BJP-ruled Haryana and the headquarters of the district collectorate in Punjab to press for starting paddy procurement on time, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait tweeted this evening.
The centre on Thursday postponed buying kharif or monsoon paddy from farmers in Punjab and Haryana till October 11. It said crop maturity has been delayed due to recent heavy rains.
However, the opposition Congress and farmers have questioned the government's decision to delay buying crops, which was scheduled to start today, as a conspiracy to end paddy procurement at minimum support price (MSP).
"To demand paddy procurement, farmers will protest outside the homes of BJP-JJP MLAs and the office of the collector in Punjab tomorrow," Mr Tikait tweeted.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, during his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, asked the centre to start buying paddy from farmers and also discussed the three controversial farm laws against which thousands of farmers have been protesting for nearly a year on the Delhi-Haryana state border.
The government's Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies buy crops from farmers.
The Congress said a large amount of paddy will go waste if they are not picked up soon. "Lakhs of quintals of paddy had already started to arrive in mandis from September 20. Eleven days have passed since, then but so far not even a single grain of the crop at MSP has been procured in Haryana," Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said today, news agency PTI reported.
In Haryana, 20 lakh quintal of paddy is lying at mandis under open skies, Mr Surjewala told reporters. "This is a clear conspiracy to end paddy procurement at MSP. Arrivals in Haryana began on September 20 and if the government will not procure the crop till October 11, if this is not a conspiracy to end MSP, then what else is it?" He said.
Farmers from different parts of the country, especially Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting along the state border in Delhi since November last year, demanding repeal of the three farm laws that they fear would do away with MSP eventually, leaving them at the mercy of big firms.
The centre has denied the allegations and offered to amend the laws after wide discussions with farmers. The centre says the farm laws are in fact beneficial for farmers as some of the provisions cut out middlemen, who exploit farmers. But the farmers have stuck to nothing less than complete withdrawal of the three laws.