Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 7
The Punjab Government has integrated land records of 80 per cent of the farmers for the foodgrain procurement process, even as the paddy purchase is yet to pick up.
Jalalabad farmers fume at delay in purchase
- Resentment is brewing among farmers over the delay in government purchase of paddy in Jalalabad subdivision
- As much as 1,045 MT of paddy has arrived in Jalalabad market, but only 5 MT has been purchased by government agencies
- BKU leader Gurwinder Singh Mannawala warned of initiating a stir if the purchase didn’t commence immediately
This process has also led to a revelation that only 35 per cent of owners in the state are tilling their own land. The rest is being cultivated by lessee farmers or through contract farming.
Records accessed by The Tribune show that of the 8.37 lakh farmers in the state, the land records of 6.70 lakh have been integrated for the purpose of procurement. This is significant considering the widespread opposition among farmers for the integration, amid fears that the lessee farmers or tillers would be left out from the procurement process as they are neither land owners nor do the owners let their names be registered as cultivators in the ‘jamabandis’.
Official sources in the Punjab Mandi Board contended that faced with a scenario where farmers opposed integration and the Centre made it mandatory for payment of the MSP for paddy, it had been a Herculean task. “We did not seek the land records from the farmers, as we risked facing their ire. So we used the J-forms submitted by the farmers and arhtiyas, the available land revenue records and details on the Anaj Kharid portal, to map all farmers,” said Ravi Bhagat, Secretary, Punjab Mandi Board.
He said the back end integration was helping in ensuring a hassle-free procurement from farmers during the ongoing paddy procurement season.
Till date, 3.9 lakh MT of paddy has arrived in the mandis, of which 3.52 lakh MT has been purchased and payment worth Rs 286 crore has been released.
The next step for the government is to go in for e-girdawari of land, where the land ownership and its cultivation will be recorded on a real-time basis, so as to bring a complete transparency in the food procurement system. There are more than 2.21 crore khasras in Punjab and the process of data entry was started in August.
Land record of 80% farmers integrated for procurement
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