Wheat lacks lustre, Haryana approaches Centre

CHANDIGARH: With wheat less than 50% lustre arriving in few mandis of Palwal, Mewat, Sonipat and Jind, the Haryana government has taken up the matter with Union government to allow procurement of such produce. In this connection, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar spoke to Union minister for food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday. After this, teams of officials have been sent to these markets to collect wheat samples.

Heavy rain and hailstorms have badly damaged crops in Haryana. With a view to provide relief to farmers, the state government has announced that shriveled and broken grain of wheat would be procured without any value cut.

According to Khattar, this value cut would also not be applied on the wheat already been purchased. While reviewing the procurement arrangement with concerned agencies, the CM directed them to ensure smooth and continuous procurement and stated no laxity in this regard would be tolerated.

The CM has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding waiving off value cut on shriveled and broken grain of wheat. He further SAID that the matter had been taken up with Paswan, who has also endorsed the request made by the state government.

"Even if the Union government does not concede to our demand, the state government would bear the cost and not the farmers. The wheat would be procured at the minimum support price of Rs 1,450 per quintal," he said.

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