Chandigarh: The General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, former President of Haryana Congress, Incharge of Uttarakhand, former Union Minister, and member of the Congress Working Committee, Kumari Selja said that the BJP government in the state, which claims to be farmer-friendly, has today become the biggest enemy of the farmers. Due to the government's negligence towards farmers, they are on the brink of ruin. Grain is scattered in the state's markets, and despite warnings of rain, the BJP government is not making any arrangements to protect the grain. This situation is not only disappointing for the farmers but also raises questions about their livelihood. Due to the state government's negligence, farmers have to watch their grains go to waste. It is clear that the BJP is merely a government of rhetoricians.
In a statement released to the media, Kumari Selja said that while the inflow of wheat and mustard is strong in the state's grain markets, the slow lifting of these crops has resulted in piles of them in the grain markets. Despite the weather department's warnings, the government has not woken up and is merely shouting about votes while roaming around the state. On Saturday, due to rain in some districts of the state, wheat and mustard lying under the open sky in the markets got wet. Despite this, no acceleration in the lifting of crops was observed in the grain markets. The weather department has issued a rain alert for April, which has farmers worried. Farmers are repeatedly demanding faster lifting, but officials and the government are ignoring their pleas. She said that there is currently a significant shortage of bags in the state's markets, which is hindering the lifting process, although the government had claimed that there would be no shortage of bags.
Kumari Selja said that in the grain markets of Charkhi Dadri district, about 190,000 quintals of mustard, which have not yet been picked up, are lying at the procurement centers. In Bhiwani's grain markets, 750,000 tons of mustard have not been lifted. In Sirsa's markets, 67 percent of the mustard has not yet been lifted. In some grain markets of Hisar district, where there is no shed arrangement, about 66,000 quintals of mustard are kept in the open. The same conditions prevail in Sonipat and Rohtak. In Jhajjar and Rewari too, crops are lying in the open, and the lifting is slow or has not happened at all in many grain markets. The worst situation regarding lifting is in Karnal and Kaithal, while in Ambala, lifting has not even started. Selja said that the farmer works hard to produce food for the country, the food for which he doesn't even get a proper price. Due to the government's negligence, the farmer's crop is lying in the open, with no arrangement to protect it from the rain, nor is it being lifted quickly. The government started procurement with half-baked preparations, even though it knew that procurement was about to begin and should have had extensive arrangements in place. The government's claims of arrangements in the markets were only limited to paper. If the government knew that procurement was to start, it should have been fully prepared.