Farmers running out of patience due to delay in payment: Deepender

Addressing mediapersons, the MP said the government has made the payment process so complicated that both the farmers and the commission agents are suffering

Congress Rajya Sabha member Deepender Singh Hooda on Friday urged the Haryana government to make payment, for wheat procured, to farmers at the earliest. He said that farmers were running out of patience due to the delay.

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Addressing mediapersons, the MP said the government has made the payment process so complicated that both the farmers and the commission agents are suffering.

“Two days ago, the agriculture minister said that the farmers had only received payment for wheat procured till April 25 and not a single penny was paid to them for purchases made thereafter,” Hooda said.

“The government has so far paid only Rs 1,500 crore out of the 12,500 crore due. About 65 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has been procured in the state so far, while the estimated arrival is close to 120 lakh metric tonnes. The government should buy every grain as promised and pay the farmer on time,” he said.

The lifting of crop is slower than the procurement done by the government, he added.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said that the state government will make a payment of ₹4,400 crore to the commission agents by May 13.

Khattar said that with this, a sum of ₹5,900 crore would have been credited in the bank accounts of arhtiyas by Wednesday night as the state government had already paid ₹1,500 crore to them between April 20 and 26.

The payment of ₹4,400 crore pertains to the wheat procured between April 26 and May 5. “Remuneration to the farmers will be released through commission agents in the next three days,” the chief minister had said.