Punjab farmers to block Chandigarh-Delhi Highway from 11 A.M.

Chandigarh, Oct 25 (IANS) Commuters travelling on the Chandigarh-Delhi National Highway via Ambala will be harassed as farmer outfit Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has announced to keep the highway shut for four hours on Friday from 11 A.M. over the “slow pace” of procurement of paddy in Punjab.

The Ambala-Chandigarh Highway would be blocked from 11 A.M. to 3 P.M. in Lalru town, a farmer activist said on Friday.

“We have made alternative arrangement to keep the traffic moving from Dera Bassi towards Barwala and further towards Ambala,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Bikramjit Singh Brar told the media.

Farmers accused the AAP government in Punjab and the BJP-led Union government for pushing the state into an agrarian crisis by delaying paddy procurement.

Another farmer outfit, Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, led by Sarwan Singh Pandher, has already announced that farmers will resort to a road blockade for an indefinite period from October 26 to protest against the “tardy” paddy procurement.

Pandher said the “chakka jam” would be held at one place each in Sangrur and Moga districts and at Phagwara and Batala towns.

State legislative Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on Thursday said during his visit to the Tanda grain market that the “Central government has failed to ensure the lifting of the rice from state shellers and has also been unsuccessful in guaranteeing Minimum Support Prices (MSP), leaving farmers in a state of crisis.”

He said that instead of engaging in petty political calculations, the Union government should acknowledge Punjab's significant contribution to the nation's food security and ensure immediate relief by expediting rice procurement besides lifting of rice from shellers.

However, 38.41 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) paddy has arrived in markets of Punjab with daily arrival of 4.88 LMT, state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said.

The total lifting has been 10.25 LMT and the daily figure is touching the 2 LMT mark, he said, adding that more than Rs 5,600 crore has been credited into the accounts of the farmers.

In the previous year, when the arrival was 38 LMT, the lifting figure touched around the 10 LMT mark with daily lifting coming around to 1.34 LMT. The payments then were pegged at a mere Rs 5,066 crore, he said.