Thousands of wheat growers in Haryana heaved a sigh of relief as the commission agents ended their indefinite strike and resumed the procurement process at mandis (grain markets) in state on Saturday.
Haryana Mandi Arhtiyas Association’s Ashok Gupta said, “We have ended the strike as the government has agreed to accept most of our demands and has assured that the state government will take up the issue of direct benefit transfer with the Centre.”
He added that the decision to end the strike was taken on Friday night after a delegation of arhtiyas held a meeting with top government officials in Chandigarh.
Gupta said the payment will be disbursed into bank accounts of farmers but the arhtiyas concerned will also get an SMS about disbursement of payment into account of the farmers 24 hours before the payment.
The decision has come as a major relief for farmers who were facing difficulties to sell their produce and were waiting at mandis for past two days.
“Due to the strike, I was unable to sell my wheat. Now, it was sold on MSP and the payment will come within next 48 hours,” said farmer Rajesh Kamboj, of Indri.
{{/usCountry}}“Due to the strike, I was unable to sell my wheat. Now, it was sold on MSP and the payment will come within next 48 hours,” said farmer Rajesh Kamboj, of Indri.
{{/usCountry}}Soon after getting information that the commission agents have called off their strike, arrival of wheat picked pace at the mandis.
Farmers had to wait for hours at the mandi entrance to get gate pass.
“I reached the mandi here at around 9am but had to wait for two hours to get the gate pass to sell my produce of around 40 quintal,” said an elderly farmer Pala Ram, of Gharuanda in Karnal.
As per officials of the food and supplies department, the government agencies have procured around 6 lakh MT wheat on MSP of ₹1,975 so far.