Haryana farmers, arhtiyas to protest value cut on grains

In a video message, BKU Haryana president Gurnam Singh Charuni has said that there is no clarity in the statement of the CM. He said the government should clarify whether it will bear the value cut for the entire season or a specific period or until the Centre takes a decision in this regard.

Even though the Haryana chief minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar has said that the state government will bear the amount of the value cut in minimum support price (MSP) for shrivelled and broken grains until the Centre takes a decision in this regard, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) has decided to continue with its April 13 protests at all grain markets.

Charuni said if the government fails to clarify the matter, farmers and arhtiyas will hold two-hour protests at all market committees from 11am to 1 pm on Thursday. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

In a video message, BKU Haryana president Gurnam Singh Charuni has said that there is no clarity in the statement of the CM. He said the government should clarify whether it will bear the value cut for the entire season or a specific period or until the Centre takes a decision in this regard.

Charuni said if the government fails to clarify the matter, farmers and arhtiyas will hold two-hour protests at all market committees from 11am to 1 pm on Thursday. He said arhtiyas will also shut their shops for two hours in support of farmers and the next decision will be taken on Thursday.

Farmers and arhtiyas said that the government did not announce the mechanism for assessment of damage to ascertain the value cut. Due to this, the government agencies may even impose value cut on the entire produce of all farmers even if the produce is not damaged.

“We demand the government to adopt a proper mechanism to evaluate the value cut of produce of each otherwise this will create a confusion among farmers and commission agents,” said Ashok Gupta, president of the association.

Procurement had started in the state on April 1 and lakhs of quintals of wheat have already been procured on MSP, before this notification was issued on April 10. On Wednesday, arhtiyas did not support procurement operations in most mandis.

As per the notification issued on April 10, the limit of shrivelled and broken grains is being relaxed up to 18% against the existing limit of 6% under uniform specifications with one-fourth of full value cut for every additional relaxation of 2%, the highest value cut will be from ₹5.31 per quintal to around ₹37.