The Mulayam Singh government in Uttar Pradesh is under fire again, this time from farmers’ lobbies. Led by the Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, they accuse the state government of delaying paddy procurement, thereby forcing farmers to go in for distress sales.‘‘The government formed the Industrial Development Board within a week of assuming office, but it is yet to set up a single purchasing centre,’’ fumed V M Singh, former legislator and president of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan.At 200 lakh metric tonnes, Uttar Pradesh produces more paddy than Punjab, Haryana and Chhattisgarh put together but, said critics, whereas the other three states started picking up paddy a fortnight ago, UP was yet to take any such step. Around 1.5 crore farmers in the state depend on paddy for survival.The government step to extend the deadline for procurement by two months and fix its purchase quota at 6.5 lakh MT — around three per cent of the total produce — has also come under fire. ‘‘Earlier, procurement used to be completed by November 31. But this government has extended the date till January 31. And the irony is that it will only purchase just three per cent of the total produce,’’ said Singh.The Left parties and a few other farmer-oriented organisations, including Mahendra Singh Tikait’s Bhartiya Kisan Union, have already announced agitational programmes from November 1 against the ‘‘anti-farmer’’ attitude of the Mulayam government in the paddy issue.‘‘Farmers need money to sow wheat, but the government hasn’t even started the procurement process. We are not going to sit idle — we will take out padyatras at the block level to highlight the Mulayam government’s anti-farmer approach,’’ CPI leader Ashok Mishra told The Indian Express.The Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan has also moved a PIL against the government’s ceiling on purchase. The case will come up for hearing in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday. ‘‘If the government picks up just three per cent of the total produce, what happens to the 97 per cent?’’ asked Singh.The criticism over the paddy procurement comes even as the government is busy ducking the flak over its decision to lease out 24 sugar mills to private players. Even his allies, including the Congress, have not spared Mulayam on this count.The government, however, refuses to acknowledge the criticism over the procurement delay as anything serious. ‘‘The purchasing agencies have already been pressed into service. The actual purchase is likely to begin soon. We will ensure that paddy is procured from actual growers, not from middlemen,’’ said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
