Cong slams Haryana govt over 'tardy' procurement process

The opposition Congress on Wednesday slammed the Haryana government for the tardy procurement of wheat, saying the process has left farmers worried.

In a telephonic conversation with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, urged to conduct the process smoothly in coordination with commission agents (arhtiyas).

According to a press statement, Hooda told the CM that the speed at which wheat was being procured, it will take at least three to four months to complete the process.

The government had promised to buy every grain from the farmers, but now it is buying the crop grain by grain. A farmer has to visit the mandis repeatedly to sell his crop, Hooda said.

Farmers are worried on how will they sow the next crop as this crop has not been sold, he added.

Commenting on the issue, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said arhtiyas have gone on strike due to which the procurement process has taken a hit.

There is a complete chaos in the mandis and the state government has failed the farmers of Haryana, Surjewala told reporters in a video conference.

The former Haryana minister said he visited 12 'mandis', including those of Kaithal, Kalayat, Uchana and Narwana, and found a complete mismanagement of the procurement process.

When pointed out that Haryana's Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala had claimed that so far nearly 3 lakh MT of wheat has been procured as against neighbouring Congress-ruled Punjab's 42,000 MT during the first two days of procurement process , Surjewala said the BJP-JJP combine was looking for excuses.

I sincerely wish Dushyant Chautala Ji had adjudged the condition of the Uchana grain market, an assembly constituency he represents, where there is a dharna going on against him, he said.

A chief minister and a deputy chief minister, who cannot procure the wheat crop in their own assembly constituencies, can definitely do zero justice to rest of the Haryana.., he added.

Surjewala claimed that the government was issuing new directions every other day, which are complicating things.

Every other day, they are coming out with a Tughlaqi Firman, changing the modalities and the goalpost, he said.

First, the government ordered commission agents to open accounts in seven private banks, then they changed that order, saying they will transfer the money into old accounts, he said.

Now, they have changed this third time, saying we do not want to procure through commission agents, instead the panchayats will be the procurement agencies in place of them. They are adamant in breaking the age-old relation which these agents share with farmers as well as farm labourers, said Surjewala.