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Payment delay worries paddy farmers in Haryana
Haryana farmers say its been over a week since they sold their paddy produce to the government but they still have not received the payment for it.
Having sold 207 quintals of paddy to the government at an MSP of ₹1,960 per quintal, Munish Kumar, a young farmer from Kurukshetra’s Gurhi village, is still unable to clear the dues of his labourers. Reason: He is yet to get the payment from the government.
Munish says that he had sold his produce, worth over ₹4 lakh, to the government on October 4. Apart from clearing the labourers’ dues, Munish also need the money urgently for purchasing seeds and fertilisers for the next crop—potato and mustard – but the delay on the end of the government is spelling trouble for him.
Jashmer Singh of Kheri Dabdalan village of Kurukshetra also has a similar complaint. He too had sold his produce about a week ago, but there is still no sign of payment.
The delay has given farmers and commission agents yet another reason to slam the government’s direct payment method.
“Earlier, we used to get money from the arhtiya soon after selling the produce. But the direct payment method has created a problem for us,” says Rishi Pal, a farmer from Karnal’s Indri block.
According to government officials, the disbursement of payment is based on a process as it requires verification and matching of gate passes, J-Forms, I Forms, H-Forms, and lifting of the produce from mandis.
They claimed that the disbursement has already started and many farmers have already got their payments, adding that it will take some time for the government to clear the dues of the rest as out of the 10.71 lakh MT of paddy procured from farmers till October 1, only 3.87 lakh MT has been lifted.
Rajneesh Choudhary, president of the Karnal Arhtiya Association, said thousands of farmers in the district are awaiting their dues against a total of 2.64 lakh MT paddy procured.
Asked about the reasons for delay in disbursement of payments, additional chief secretary to Haryana food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department Anurag Rastogi said paddy was brought in much before the purchase started and this created a pressure on the system. He said the process to clear the payments has already been started and it will speed up soon.
Last year too, farmers had complained about the delay in payments, prompting chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to intervene and issue strict directions to officials to ensure timely payment to farmers. He had also directed the headquarter-level officials to ensure that the generation of H-Form, J-Form, Gate Pass and I-Form should be made online.
