Jammu: The Congress on Saturday sought the intervention of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha in setting up more wheat procurement centres in Jammu.
In a letter addressed to the Lieutenant Governor, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) claimed farmers are being cheated and looted by middlemen in the absence of mandis.
The government announced Rs 1,925 per quintal minimum support price (MSP) of wheat this year but the farmer is being forced to sell his wheat produce at Rs 1,500 per quintal in the absence of any procurement mandi in several districts like Rajouri, JKPCC chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said in the letter.
Last time, he said farmers were compelled to sell maize crop at Rs 1,100 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 1,800 per quintal.
This is very unfortunate and makes it totally irrelevant to fix MSP for crops when the government has failed to set up a single procurement centre in various districts of wheat producing Jammu province, the Congress leader said.
He alleged that farmers are being cheated and looted by the middlemen as they are forced to sell their produce at much cheaper rates.
This is one of the main causes of the farmers’ agitation against the new farm laws as it does not guarantee the return to the farmers at MSP and we are already seeing this kind of culture here, he claimed.
He said farmers have already suffered a huge loss due to heavy rains recently.
Therefore, I seek your immediate attention and action for the establishment of procurement centres at all important locations in each district so that farmers get the price of wheat fixed by the government, he said.
