Farmers hold protest in Kathua

Irked over the delay in setting up of three paddy procurements centres here, the farmers today held a protest outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC).
A large number of farmers from the district under the banner of Kashmir Kissan Tehreek held a protest demanding the setting up of five procurement centres in the district.
"We want five procurement centres and for which we have held several meetings with the government representatives, but after lot many assurances nothing has so far been done," state President of Kissan Tehreek Arun Kumar said.
He said that the government had opened two centers but were not functioning properly and accused a private paddy dealer of running a nexus with the officials to harass the farmers.

"The poor farmers are forced to sell the paddy at Rs 800 per quintal whereas the price fixed by the government was Rs 1400," Kumar said.