Harsimrat claims stalling of wheat procurement in Bathinda

SAD candidate from the Bathinda seat Harsimrat Kaur Badal Saturday accused the Punjab government of failing to procure gunny bags that led to "stalling" of wheat procurement process in the constituency.

"The Congress government's criminal negligence in failing to procure gunny bags has choked all the grain markets in the constituency, besides stalling the wheat procurement process and causing untold misery to farmers," she claimed.

Holding Amarinder Singh responsible for farmers' "hardships", the Union minister said the farmers had the right to know why their chief minister had "let them down".

"Raja Sahab you are accountable to the people. You should tell farmers why your government failed to procure gunny bags in advance by placing orders in time. It is condemnable that you are still not paying attention to this problem forget about identifying those responsible for this lapse and taking strict action against them," she said.

She advised Singh to lead from the front and address farmers' grievances.

Badal said the CM had made only one visit to a grain market while enroute to a political function more than one week back.

She said with no political will to mitigate the problems of farmers, the administration as well as procurement agencies were now also giving a "raw deal" to the farmers.

Badal said she was getting complaints from all mandis in the constituency, including Bhucho, Naruana and Kaljharani, besides the local mandi that despite complaints to staff, no attempt was being made to lift wheat from the mandis.

She said farmers were complaining that the procurement process had also been delayed.

"Even commission agents are suffering due to lack of lifting," she added.