Punjab: Commission agents protest slow lifting of procured wheat

The District Arhtiya Association today protested against the tardy process of lifting of procured wheat. They alleged that more than 5 lakh bags of procured wheat were lying in the open. They demanded immediate lifting of procured wheat.

Addressing mediapersons, district association president Sadhu Ram Bhatt Majra and Sirhind Arhtiya Association president Jitender Singh Mann said though the wheat inflow had reduced considerably, the lifting of wheat was not being done by various procurement agencies effectively. They alleged that more than 5 lakh bags of wheat were lying under the open sky in the main grain market of Sirhind alone. These include 2 lakh bags each of Pungrain and Markfed and nearly 1 lakh of Punsup.

The commission agents said due to non-lifting of wheat, labourers were idle and they had to deploy security guards for the safety of the procured crop as cases of theft were reported in the past and they had to bear their daily expenses. They said apart from this, due to non-lifting of procured wheat, the weight was decreasing and the agencies forcibly collected shortages from them, while it was the responsibility of the purchasing agency to carry out the lifting in the prescribed hours as per the rules.

They said if the agencies did not complete the lifting in the next one or two days, they would intensify their protest.

Kulwant Singh, Balwinder Singh, Mandeep Singh and other commission agents were present on the occasion.

This article has been republished from The Tribune.