Farmers will protest outside houses of BJP-JJP leaders if paddy procurement is delayed: Chaduni
Haryana BKU (Chaduni) chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni on Thursday said that farmers will protest outside the houses of MPs, MLAs and other leaders of the ruling BJP-JJP combine in the state if the government fails to begin paddy procurement on October 1. Chaduni said that the Centre has postponed the paddy procurement from October 1 to October 11.
"We want to warn the Khattar government that they should start procurement from October 1. If they fail to do so, we will lay siege to homes of the BJP-JJP MLAs, MPs and their other leaders,” Chaduni said.
He asked the farmers to take their tractor trollies and unload the crop outside the homes of the BJP-JJP leaders, if the government fails to begin procurement on Friday.
"We had earlier said if paddy procurement cannot start from September 15, then it should not be delayed beyond September 25. Paddy has already arrived in mandis. Where will farmers store it, besides the weather has also been inclement in recent days,” Chaduni said.
"The government had earlier said that it will start procurement from October 1, but now they are saying it will begin from October 11. The government is doing all this when our agitation against central farm laws is going on,” he said.
The Centre on Thursday postponed procurement of kharif paddy in Punjab and Haryana till October 11 as the crop maturity is delayed owing to recent heavy rains.
The procurement operation is undertaken by the central government's nodal agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) along with state agencies.
"It has been reported that due to recent heavy downpour in Punjab and Haryana, the maturity of paddy has been delayed," Union Food Ministry said in a statement.
Keeping in view the interest of farmers and to avoid any inconvenience to them, the ministry has decided that the procurement of paddy under the minimum support price would commence from October 11 in these two states, it said.
