Farmers block Sirsa-dabwali road over non-procurement of mustard
HISAR: Upset over non-procurement of mustard seed, farmers of different villages of Sirsa district on Monday blocked the Sirsa-dabwali national highway and shouted slogans against the local administration.
Police officials rushed to the spot and assured the farmers that their problem will be sorted out. After getting assurance, the farmers lifted the blockade that continued for more than oneand-a-half hours, causing chaos on the national highway-9.
Farmer Jaidev Singh said, “The local administration has totally failed to lift mustard crop so far. How the other farmers will bring wheat crop to the grain market?”
Another farmer Jashan Singh said, “The officials of the market committee assured farmers that mustard will be lifted by the government procurement agencies by April 16.
On the given date, we reached at the grain market here at about 3am. But not even a single official reached the grain market to start procurement of mustard seed. If the government fails to purchase our produce, we will start a hunger strike in front of the DC office.”
WHEAT PROCUREMENT
Meanwhile, Sirsa district food and supply officer (DFSO) Ashok Bansal said the government procurement agencies have purchased 1.43 lakh metric tonnnr of wheat so far in the district. Bansal appealed to the farmers to directly contact him if they face any kind of problem in procurement of wheat.