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Haryana CM Khattar announces interim relief for sunflower growers
Haryana CM Khattar at a press briefing said that when the state government started procuring millet on MSP, farmers of other states also started selling their millet crops in Haryana mandis. “A similar situation will arise in the sunflower procurement. So as a matter of precaution we have announced the interim bharpai, as the market rates keep fluctuating,” the CM said.
In an effort to placate sunflower cultivators, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday digitally released a sum of ₹29.13 crore as an interim payment (bharpai) to 8,528 sunflower farmers for the oilseed crop sown an area of 36,414 acres. The cultivators are up in arms demanding a minimum support price (MSP) of ₹6,400 per quintal.
The CM at a press briefing said that when the state government started procuring millet on MSP, farmers of other states also started selling their millet crops in Haryana mandis. “A similar situation will arise in the sunflower procurement. So as a matter of precaution we have announced the interim bharpai, as the market rates keep fluctuating,” the CM said.
Khattar said the government will take a “positive decision” in the interest of sunflower farmers and a detailed study about the market rates is being conducted.
He said that at present the procurement of sunflowers in Haryana was being done at ₹4,800 per quintal. Neighboring Punjab is procuring the oilseed crop at ₹4,000-4,200 per quintal. “We suspect that Punjab’s crop will also find a way in our mandis,” he said.
Khattar said that the online registration for sunflower was done for 40,000 acres. About 17,000 acres were added to it when the web portal was opened again on farmers demand. “It was found that many registrations were not above board. After verification, about 9,000 acres were removed from the database and verification of 6,000 acres is still on,” he said.
No rift with JJP, our alliance will continue: CM
Dismissing talks regarding rift in the BJP-JJP alliance, Khattar said the alliance is intact and will continue.
“The BJP and the JJP were not pre-poll allies. Both of us needed each other to form the government after no one got a clear majority in 2019 assembly polls. The Independents MLAs are also supporting us. At the moment, the BJP, JJP and Independents together have a strength of 58 MLAs in the state assembly,’’ Khattar said.
Asked about BJP’s in-charge for Haryana, Biplab Kumar Deb meeting the Independent MLAs recently, Khattar said too much should not be read into it. “The coalition government is functioning well. There are no problems between the allies,” he said.
