Set up wheat procurement centre at Sunderbani areas – Ravinder
Distressed farmers sell wheat below MSP in absence of Procurement centres - Congress
Sunderbani, May 5- Former MLC and Chief Spokesperson JKPCC Mr Ravinder Sharma has raised the issue of lack of Anaj Mandi ( procurement centre ) in the entire belt of Sunderbani, Nowshera and Kalakote areas of Rajouri district and demanded immediate setting up procurement centre in the interest of farmers of the area.
Interacting with party workers in Sunderbani today Senior Congress leader questioned the agriculture department for ignoring Rajouri district especially Sunderbani, Nowshera and Kalakote sub region which has good production of wheat & maize crops but no procurement centre is set up every year to benefit the middlemen .
The farmers suffer and are looted by private players against the stated government policy to set up procurement centers in all potential areas.
He questioned why Rajouri- Poonch is ignored, as per a policy , as a result farmers are forced to sell their produce to private players on cheaper rates.
He suspected a nexus at some levels for the benefit of private players at the cost of farmers of this border region. Farmers suffer in the absence of timely and adequate quantity of seeds and fertilizer at appropriate time.
The government should decentralize the authority to meet the requirements of hilly and border areas of Jammu province, as there is step motherly treatment to the farmers of hilly border and remote regions.
He demanded immediate setting up of Anaaj Mandi ( Wheat Procurement centres at Sunderbani, Nowshera and Kalakote sub division levels and one at Siot, the central place, so that farmers intrests are saved and they avail the benefits of MSP announced by government, otherwise it has no meaning to farmers, who are forced to sell at lower rates than MSP, he added.
Mr Sharma also demanded that Panchayat plans should be framed in gram sabhas by taking the people of gram panchayat into confidence. The plans are formulated on pick & choose basis in violation of guidelines and norms.
Such pick & choose method will be exposed in the days to come and asked workers to educate people in rural areas.
Block Presidents NC Sharma Sdr Ajit Singh, Thoru Ram ,Senior leaders Dwarka Nath Sharma, Yog Raj Sharma, Th Rajesh Jamwal,Deepak Kumar, Ashwani Kumar Rajiv Chadha, Govind Sudan, Ch Mohammed Anwar,Tilak Raj Sagar Sharma Dr Ved Sudan, Lok Nath,Ranjit Singh,Gurmeet Singh & several others attended the meeting.
