Gurnam Singh Chaduni addresses the people. (Express Photo by Manoj Dhaka)A group of farmers, on a call from senior BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni, Friday blocked the Delhi-Ambala national highway near Shahabad in Haryana’s Kurukshetra demanding that the government immediately begin paddy procurement. The procurement of Kharif crops, including paddy, in Haryana will start from October 1. Some protesting farmers even tried to remove police barricades on the road.
Addressing the farmers at the protest site, Chaduni said the government should immediately begin the procurement process. “The farmers don’t have any space to store paddy at their homes. The paddy has been lying in the mandis for the past several days. Neither the government is buying it nor allowing the rice sellers to do the same. The government is not allowing it’s export too by imposing excise duty,” he said.
Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had earlier demanded that government should start paddy procurement from September 20. Arhtiyas (commission agents in mandis) too had demanded that the procurement should have started from September 15. Farmers, who started blocking the national highway in Kurukshetra at 1pm, were on the road till late Friday evening with the three-round of talks between the agitators and the administration not yielding any fruitful results.