Farmers to get 9% interest if procurement payment delayed: Dushyant
Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala said 408 grain markets have been set up for procurement of wheat, 102 for mustard, 11 for pulses and 25 for barley in the state
Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala on Saturday said the state government will pay 9% interest to farmers if there are delays in making the payment of foodgrains procurement.
At a press briefing, he said the government’s initiative of transferring procurement payment to the accounts of farmers has worked well. During the kharif procurement this time, the state government will follow the same pattern of transferring payment directly in the bank accounts of farmers within 48-72 hours. “If there is a delay in the payment, they will be paid along with 9 % interest,” he said.
He said that 408 grain markets have been set up for procurement of wheat, 102 for mustard, 11 for pulses and 25 for barley in the state. So far, about 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has reached the grain markets, out of which 18,000 metric tonnes have been procured. Last year, various government agencies procured 67 lakh metric tonnes of wheat. Although there has been crop damage due to hailstorm this year, the same amount is expected to be procured. The state government has made adequate arrangements for the procurement of 76 lakh metric tonnes of wheat.
Dushyant said that in view of the crop damage due to rain and hailstorms, he has sent a letter to Union minister of consumer affairs Piyush Goyal requesting some relaxation in the moisture content of wheat. After this, a Central government team conducted a survey and he is hopeful that the Centre will provide some relaxation to the farmers.
He said that farmers who have suffered losses due to the recent unseasonal rains and hailstorms should upload their reports on the e-Kshatipurti portal by April 9 so that assessment of girdawari can be done. Dushyant said that a three-tier drone mapping has been completed in 6,260 villages of 22 districts to make them ‘lal-dora free’. He said that about 25.14 lakh property IDs have been generated and 23.94 property IDs have been handed over to their owners. The work of the remaining 5% IDs will be completed in the next two to three months.
He said the work of large-scale mapping is also being done in the state under which each property will be colour-coded. There are 7,115 revenue estates. The state government has set a target to complete large-scale mapping work by March 2024.
Compensate farmers for crop damage: Hooda
Addressing a press conference here, Hooda said the farmers are already facing problems due to the bad weather.
“The government is creating hurdles in their way by stopping the purchase of wheat. The government should purchase wheat at minimum support price by giving them relaxation in moisture content and luster loss,” Hooda added.
He also demanded to give at least ₹500 per quintal bonus for wheat crop, besides releasing a compensation of ₹25,000 to 50,000 per acre for the crop damaged, according to damaged percentage.
Commenting on chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s rural outreach programmes, Hooda said now the government is thinking about villages after “ignoring them in the last eight and half years”.