Haryana: Tardy lifting of wheat delays payment to farmers

Total 47.65 lakh MT of wheat has arrived in the mandis, out of which 44.01 lakh MT has been procured while over 20 lakh MT wheat is still lying in the mandis

Millions of tonnes of procured wheat is still lying in the mandis of Haryana due to tardy lifting, which is in turn delaying the disbursement of payments to farmers.

Millions of tonnes of procured wheat is still lying in the mandis of Haryana due to tardy lifting, which is in turn delaying the disbursement of payments to farmers. (HT File)

The moisture content is some of the wheat has also increased due to the showers on Wednesday.

As per figures, around 47.65 lakh MT wheat has arrived in the mandis of the state, out of which, 44.01 lakh MT has been procured but over 20 lakh MT of procured wheat is still lying in the mandis due to poor lifting.

In Karnal, a total of 6.53 lakh MT wheat has been procured in various mandis and only 3.30 lakh MT wheat has been lifted so far and 3.23 lakh MT is still lying in the mandis.

In Kurukshetra, 4.01 lakh MT wheat has been procured but only 1.50 lakh MT wheat has been lifted so far. However, the delayed lifting has also held up payment to farmers. As per the figures, ₹2,974 crore of 13.52 lakh MT wheat has been disbursed into the bank accounts of farmers.

“The lifting is slow and over 90% of the wheat coming to mandis is lying in the open in the absence of sheds. We are struggling to protect it from rains,” said Mahender Singh, a commission agent of Nilokheri grain market.

Pankaj Agarwal, commissioner and secretary, Haryana food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department, said lifting is being done as per routine and more efforts will be made to speed up the operations wherever required.