Annoyed over tardy paddy lifting, farmers block roads in Punjab

Farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) blocked roads at many places in Punjab to protest against the “tardy” paddy procurement and lifting. Photo used for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Annoyed over tardy procurement of paddy crop in the ongoing Kharif (summer) marketing season, farmers under the banner of Samyukat Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Friday (October 25, 2024) blocked National and State Highways in Punjab as a mark of protest, even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were engaged in blame game.

Farmers squatted on roads including National and State highways at several places, for four hours, disrupting vehicular traffic, causing trouble for commuters.

SKM’s senior farmer leader Jagmohan Singh said that farmers staged ‘sit-in’ protests at around 150 places across the State to express their resentment.

“The AAP government in the State and the BJP led government at the Centre are both responsible for the ongoing mess. The Centre is adopting a ‘step motherly’ attitude towards Punjab as a result of which paddy lifting was not being done by warehouses and rice-sheller. The AAP government is also silent on this issue, and the farmers are suffering,” he said.

Meanwhile, politics surrounding the tardy paddy procurement was at the centre stage as former Chief Minister and BJP leader Captain Amarinder Singh visited grain market at Khanna. Expressing concern over the plight of farmers, he accused the AAP government in the State for its failure to procure paddy, leaving farmers in distress.

“The situation is alarming. During my tenure, no farmer had to sleep in the mandi (market) even once. They would bring their produce, it would get procured, and they would get money in their accounts, all in one day. Today, farmers are sitting with their crop in mandis for 10 days, and it’s not even being procured at the minimum support price (MSP),” he said, adding that the Centre had already sent ₹44,000 crores to the Punjab government for procurement.

“The allegations of Centre’s indifference are baseless. Punjab has always had different governments at the Centre and State, but this problem of non-lifting never arose before. It’s a clear failure of the AAP government,” he said.

Reacting to Captain Amarinder Singh’s visit, senior AAP leader and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said, “Captain’s political career has ended. Since the public has rejected him, he is now pretending to show sympathy for farmers by visiting the ‘mandis’. The people of Punjab know that the entire problem has been created by the Central government. The Central government has not lifted rice from warehouses on time and has not listened to the concerns of the millers and commission agents, causing distress to farmers in Punjab.”