Amid lockdown, getting movement pass for harvesting machines a tough task: Karnal farmers

Farmers say the state government has made it clear that the farmers will have to take permission for the movement of tractors, combine harvesters and threshing machines in the district

As harvesting of Rabi crop is underway in the state, hundreds of owners of combine harvesters have been approaching Karnal’s mini-secretariat to get movement passes for their agricultural machinery as they have to travel one district to the other for the harvesting.

HT Image

According to the farmers, the state government has made it clear that the farmers will have to take permission for the movement of tractors, combine harvesters and threshing machines in the district, as it has been declared as containment zone by the state government after five positive cases of Coronavirus were reported here.

“For the past three days, we are making rounds to the government offices to get the movement pass, but to no avail. We want the government to ensure that the permission can be availed from local offices as well,” said Sumit Kumar, a farmer from Jamba village.

Another farmer Mohit Kumar, of Bijana village, said, “As per the government norms, we have to take all our workers for medical examination, and later we need to apply for the movement pass at the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) office, but there is huge rush at the government offices for the permission.”

The farmers demand that the government should ensure that they get the permission in their local tehsils without any delay, so that they can start the harvesting soon.

Karnal deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav, while talking to Hindustan Times, said, “We have directed the SDMs to get the medical checkup of all the people associated with combine harvesters and other harvesting machinery done soon and issue certificates immediately after it.”

As per the information, 1,100 combine harvesters are registered in Karnal and among them, 700 have got the permission for the movement pass, while the applications of remaining 400 are still pending.