Haryana Farmers block NH- 44 over delay in food-grain purchasing process

In Kurukshetra, Haryana, farmers fully blocked National Highway 44 that connects Delhi to Chandigarh at Shahbad in Kurukshetra district on Friday as they launched a scheduled protest about the delay in the purchase of their harvested goods. The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) is leading the demonstration.

Farmers had urged the state administration to move up the date for procurement on the grounds that they lack the capacity to store food; otherwise, they had threatened to stage a protest. According to Gurnam Singh Charuni, the leader of the Haryana BKU, farmers want the purchase of parmal rice to be made in advance because of the anticipated early harvest as a result of the expansion of early maturing varieties.

Farmers claim that because the agencies have not yet begun their purchase, their produce was left unattended in mandis or markets. Due to a rise in their moisture content, this caused hundreds of quintals of paddy stock to be destroyed in the grain markets in Ambala, Kaithal, and other areas.

Despite the fact that the paddy produce has begun to arrive in the mandis in large quantities, the agencies have not yet begun the buying process. The official procurement process will begin on October 1, 2022.