“Bankrupt” Punjab Owes 5,200 Crore Rupees To Farmers For Crop Sale

0
486

CHANDIGARH – More than 25,000 ‘arhtiyas’ (commission agents) and thousands of state farmers are waiting for the payment of dues amounting to Rs 5,200 crore against the sale of their paddy crop in Punjab mandis.

It is for the first time that paddy crop dues have got delayed by a month and have dragged on till December.

The state government had cleared payment of paddy procured till November 4 by releasing Rs 2,800 crore on Friday, reducing the outstanding amount from Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 5,200 crore.

Nearly 90 per cent of paddy growers have got payments from the ‘arhtiyas’ against the sale of their crop, citing their daily needs as the reason.

Now, it is the turn of ‘arhtiyas’ to bear the brunt on account of delay in payment to be made to them by the state government for procuring paddy for the central pool.

The commission agents, it was learnt, were forced to shell out interest of about Rs 150 crore as they had to pay farmers by arranging loans from different banks.

The commission agents said they were forced to make the payment soon after the farmers sold their crop and immediately after the filling of their J-forms. The Punjab Commission Agents’ Association has threatened that it would knock on the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court if the payment was not cleared by the state government soon.

hiwal is less than 1,000.

“The purpose of rearing a cow is to produce milk for commercial purpose. On an average, Sahiwal produces 9-10 litres of milk compared to 25-30 litres by HF. It is beyond our understanding how promotion of Sahiwal will help us in meeting the milk demand,” said a senior scientist of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU).

“We started promoting HF four decades ago as we needed milk to feed our population. Now if again shift focus on indigenous breeds, we will be staring at acute milk scarcity,” he added.

The variety is being promoted with funds provided by the Central government under the Rashritya Gokul Mission.

Department officials revealed that veterinarians across Punjab had been categorically told to identify all Sahiwal cows in their respective territories and artificially inseminate them with pure semen of the Sahiwal variety.

Interestingly, the rationale being suggested by the Punjab Animal Husbandry Department behind this decision is the age-old established fact that exotic varieties are not suited for rearing in foreign (Punjab’s) environment.

“Sahiwal’s milk has higher fat content than HF, which will compensate its low yield. Moreover, Sahiwal is indigenous species of Punjab and it copes well with the local environment. Since demerits of HF have begun manifesting, we now need to gradually shift our reliance to such indigenous varieties,” said Dr HS Sandha, Director, Punjab Animal Husbandry Department.