Priyanka to Yogi: There should be guarantee on wheat procurement

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wrote to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday urging him to flag the problems faced by wheat farmers in selling their produce and demanded that the government should guarantee wheat procurement.

In her letter, Priyanka said that there should be a guarantee on procurement of wheat from farmers at procurement centres till July 15. She claimed that she had been getting information from all UP districts that farmers were facing a lot of problems in selling their wheat produce.

“Wheat procurement started from April 1, but due to the pandemic, purchase centres remained locked. As soon as farmers started reaching the procurement centres with wheat, procurement was reduced to half. In states like Punjab and Haryana, the government procurement of wheat accounts for 80-85 per cent of the total production, while in UP, only 14 percent of the 378 lakh metric tonnes of wheat produced was procured by the government centres. Numerous farmers have not been able to sell their produce due to various government decrees and officers are reluctant in purchasing wheat from farmers at procurement centres,” she claimed.

Priyanka further reminded that the CM had said that all farmers would be extended the facility of wheat procurement, but in many villages the purchasing centres have been closed and farmers were being forced to go to distant mandis and sell to middlemen.

“Heavy rains have lashed several parts of the state and there is a danger of wheat rotting due to moisture. In such a situation farmers will be forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices. Due to the pandemic and inflation, the condition of farmers is already bad and if their crop is not procured or they are forced to sell it for peanuts, it will break their backs,” the Congress leader said.

In her letter, Priyanka demanded that there should be a guarantee on procurement of wheat from farmers at purchase centres till July 15 and arrangements be made at each centre so that farmers did not have to wander to sell their grains. “There are media reports from many districts that a maximum of 30 or 50 quintals of wheat is being purchased from a farmer at a time which is a cause of worry for them. The government should ensure that maximum purchase were made from farmers,” Priyanka stressed.