Arhtiyas unwilling to support procurement, oppose opening of new bank accounts

A letter issued on April 13 by the deputy director (procurement) of director food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department to the general managers of seven private banks read that the state finance department has issued standing instructions to all the empanelled banks for opening new bank accounts of arhtiyas

With only four days left for wheat procurement to begin in all grain markets of the state, commission agents are unwilling to support the move as they want the government to clear their pending dues.

Mustard produce arrives for procurement at Rohtak New grain market (Manoj Dhaka/HT)

The arhtiyas also objected to the government’s notification issued to the private banks to open a new current bank account of all the commission agents to receive the payments for wheat procured by government agencies and for easy transfer of money to the farmers.

“The government has accepted only some of our demands. It did not give any clarification over the pending payments of ₹150 crore. Moreover, the commission agents are not ready to open fresh bank accounts for the online payment of wheat,” said Vikas Singhal, secretary of Haryana State Anaj Mandi Arhtiya Association.

A letter issued on April 13 by the deputy director (procurement) of director food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department to the general managers of seven private banks read that the state finance department has issued standing instructions to all the empanelled banks for opening new bank accounts of arhtiyas.

“You are, therefore, requested to open new current accounts of all the arhtiyas, who are not having bank accounts in the above mentioned banks, so that the payments to the farmers may be routed through these accounts via the e-kharid portal,” read the letter.

Singhal said that most of the arhtiyas in the state are unwilling to support the government as they already have bank accounts and there is no need to open new ones a week before the procurement.

Talking to Hindustan Times, additional chief secretary (ACS) food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, PK Das, said, “Yes, they have been told to open new accounts for the easy transfer of payments to farmers without any delay.”

“We don’t know why they were objecting to it as opening a new bank account takes only 20 minutes.

The procurement will begin from April 20 and they have enough time to open it as we have already instructed the banks to open these accounts without any further delay”, he added.

However, the government has already accepted the demand of the commission agents allowing them to make deductions from the payments of the farmers who had taken an advance from them.

On the pending payments, Das said, “As of now, I cannot provide the exact figure, but the amount is not ₹150 crore. Also, efforts were made to clear it.”