PATIALA: Amid their fight against the farm laws, the illegal arrival of paddy from other states has made Punjab farmers apprehensive of procurement blues. A few days back, a number of agitating farmers at Shambu border had confiscated two trucks loaded with paddy and informed the district authorities about the same besides circulating the video of the incident on some social media groups.
Farmers say that as paddy is not being purchased on MSP in some other states, the private buyers including rice millers in Punjab are buying the produce at better prices than private buyers of these states. They said this has led to the arrival of paddy at rice mills in Punjab at a large level which may affect the paddy procurement of farmers in Punjab.
On Friday night, the farmers and rice millers were involved in a clash in a village of Samana block in Patiala district following which rice millers had opened fire to disperse the protesting farmers. The police said farmers levelled allegations against a rice miller in Dhakrabba village of Patiala of procuring paddy from outside states including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The farmers staged a protest near the mill following which rice millers fired a gunshot, but nobody was injured.
Samana DSP Jaswant Singh Mangat said, “We have booked the rice mill owner for an attempt to murder under sections of the IPC and Arms Act. No arrest has been made so far. The farmers suspected that the rice miller was procuring paddy from other states. Police have involved the food supply officials to probe the matter.”
Notably, a similar case against a rice miller was registered at Patran police station on Friday after the farmers confiscated a paddy-loaded truck on October 13. The farmers alleged that the paddy from other states was procured illegally by the rice millers on cheaper prices. The police said market committee officials found the bills of paddy with the truck owner and rice miller as fake following which the rice miller was booked for cheating and forgery.
BKU Ekta Dakaunda general secretary Jagmohan Singh said, “The illegal paddy procurement by rice millers from other states would affect the farmers in Punjab as the procurement will slow down when rice millers will run out of space to unload paddy for thrashing process. Like farmers of UP and Bihar who are forced to sell out their paddy in far off states like Punjab at much cheaper prices in the absence of paddy purchase on MSP, the farmers in Punjab will also be ruined if the new farm laws are implemented.”
7 trucks intercepted at Shambhu border
On Friday, a joint team of Mandi Board officials, food supply officials and the police launched an operation to curb bogus milling and unauthorized sale of paddy crop in Punjab from other states. The police said seven truckloads of paddy being brought to Punjab from UP were intercepted at Shambhu border on Friday. Meanwhile, the investigation has been started to unearth the motive of shifting of paddy from UP to Punjab, said district food and civil supplies controller (DFSC) Harsharanjit Singh Brar.
He said following the outcome of the investigation, further action would be initiated. He said at both inter-state borders of the district Patiala including Shambhu border near Rajpura and Ramnagar border near Samana, the teams have been put on alert to check paddy trucks coming from other states to Punjab.
He said as per the strict instructions of the Punjab food and civil supply minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a joint team of Punjab Mandi Board, food and civil supplies department and police was formed to conduct a joint operation on the interstate borders of Patiala district. These teams would curb the bogus sale of paddy procured from other states and supplied to Punjab mandis.