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Journalism of Courage
CHANDIGARH, OCT 10: It began with Punjab. Now, tardy paddy procurement has started fuelling resentment in Haryana as well. Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today came in for a scathing attack from the Congress and Republican Party of India (RPI) for his “callous and slipshod” handling of paddy procurement in the state.
Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda and RPI MLA Karan Singh Dalal alleged that six of Chautala’s handpicked officers were on a foreign junket at a time when farmers were caught in the paddy procurement mess.
“The condition of paddy producers is miserable as the state agencies have not only delayed procurement but are hand in glove with unscrupulous traders partronised by the ruling INLD,” they alleged.
Hooda said that the state agencies had created panic in the grain markets by rejecting paddy on the pretext of poor quality, thereby compelling farmers to go for distress sale of their produce. “The traders are buying paddy from these farmers at prices of Rs 350-380 per tonne and selling to the state agencies at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 540. These traders are doing a roaring business under the patronage of the ruling party,” he alleged.
The Congress said that Chautala’s promise to buy paddy from Punjab showed he was capable of sacrificing the interests of Haryana’s farmers for political gains. The offer was aimed at wooing voters for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Sunam but affected local paddy producers as hundreds of Punjab farmers reached Haryana with their produce, Hooda said.
RPI’s Dalal, who was accompanied by Chautala’s younger brother Pratap Singh, said the chief minister had made false promises about procuring every grain of paddy. The farmers are in a state of misery, but the chief minister is on a tour of foreign countries at the cost of the state exchequer to woo investors, he said.
