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Arthiyas call off strike after meeting with Mann
Mann met a delegation of the arthiyas led by association president Vijay Kalra and assured the commission agents that the state government is committed to considering their genuine demands.
After assurance from chief minister Bhagwant Mann, the arthiyas on Monday announced to call off their strike, according to a government release. The ‘arthiyas’ under the federation of arthiya association of Punjab had been on strike in support of their demands, including a hike in their commission hampering the paddy procurement process that officially started on October 1.
Mann met a delegation of the arthiyas led by association president Vijay Kalra and assured the commission agents that the state government is committed to considering their genuine demands.
According to Mann while the state government is sympathetic to their demands, however, most of their demands are concerned with the centre.
Mann assured the arhtiyas to flag their issues with the centre. “The issue of enhancement of arthiya fees will be taken up with the Union government as it is causing a loss of ₹192 crore and efforts will be made to get this loss compensated by January 2025,” Mann said.
The arhtiyas have been demanding an increase in dami (commission) on the purchase of paddy which the Centre, since the past six procurement seasons, have fixed at ₹46 per quintal. Earlier, the commission agents were getting a commission at the rate of 2.5% of MSP, which as per the current MSP of ₹2,320 comes out to ₹58 per quintal.
According to Kalra, the president of the arhtiya association, the matter has been explained to the chief minister with threadbare clarity.
“The CM has assured to fill the gap in case the state government is unable to recover the balance from the centre. The state has assured to pay a balance of ₹12 to arthiyas,” Kalra claimed.
The CM said that meetings will be held after every 50 days with arthiyas to resolve their issues, assuring that he would also raise the issue with Union Government for the release of ₹50 crore of pending employee provident fund (EPF) of the mandi labourers.
The CM also announced that he will personally visit the mandis to oversee the procurement operations in the state.
“The state government is committed to ensuring the procurement and lifting of the paddy in a smooth and hassle free manner. The state is expected to procure 185 lakh tonnes of paddy to be brought into mandis by farmers during the current season,” Mann said.
This season, the crop was sown over 32 lakh hectares. The state government has already received a cash credit limit of ₹41,378 crore from the RBI to procure the crop.
The commission for agricultural costs and prices (CACP) has a fixed minimum support price (MSP) at ₹ 2,320 per quintal for grade ‘A’ paddy this season.
State’s procurement agencies, Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup, and Punjab state warehousing corporation, along with the Centre’s FCI, will procure paddy on MSP. CM added that a mechanism has been evolved to ensure on-the-spot payment to the farmers in their bank accounts.
