NEW DELHI: In its effort to procure enough wheat to keep the public distribution system ticking, the Punjab government has antagonized both the farmers, who would rather sell wheat to traders, and the arhtiyas (middlemen in the wheat trade). The result is an atmosphere of confrontation in the mandis of Punjab, and despair in procurement agencies,

Even before the boycott of the mandis called by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) the farmers had virtually rejected the procurement price of Rs 280 per quintal (including state bonus). State government officials were helplessly watching wheat being taken away from the state by traders and farmers.

This was most striking at the Chandigarh grain market where procurement agencies are not present. With wheat prices up to Rs 310 a quintal, market arrivals, unlike the mandis in Punjab, had actually increased. “It is approximately double or may be more compared to last year,” said K.C.Mittal, a private trader at the Mandi, Official figures were not available.

The government under pressure from the Center, is doing everything possible to prevent traders from buying wheat without appearing to go against the interests of the farmers.

But this has only complicated matters. At the Ludhiana Mandi, the local food and civil supplies inspector went to the extent of asking traders to stop offering a higher price to farmers. The traders, immediately boycotted the auction and the mandi closed down. A spokesman of the arhtiyas association of Ludhiana, Krishan Thapur said the waders were angry but helpless. “The inspector is everything for us; our license depends on him.” The secretary of the market committee here, Charanjit Singh, said he had to ask the inspector to exercise restraint and allow the mandi to operate. State government officials dismissed this as a “stray incident.” The state government is in a di-Jemma. It cannot directly announce measures to prevent traders from the option of banning the movement of wheat across the border of Punjab, as has been done in Haryana. This would have reduced the demand from traders, but such political foundations of the state government, Already, the Akalis and the BKU are telling farmers that the government does not represent their interests and is denying the farmers their due. So the state government cannot take steps which appear to be against the farmers. Nevertheless, the state government has imposed a limit of 250 quintals for stocks with the traders. It has introduced a new “Q forum” which, a rhtiyas say, delays their transactions considerably (officials say this was done to ensure payment of market fees). Also, it has set up check posts at the inter-state border to monitor wheat movement An inspector at the check post at Kharar, on the Punjab-Chandigarh border even said that he had been asked to stop trucks carrying wheat on any pressure.

The result is that the arhtiy as also are up in arms against the government. A spokesman of the Arhtiyas Association of Khanna, Ranbir Sood, said that the arhtiyas did not oppose the BKU-led wheat boycott. When the seven-day boycott began, he said the Arhtiyas at Khanna would refuse to purchase wheat even if a few bags arrived during the week,

At Moga, a grain merchant, Harsh Kansal, complained that mandi officials were going well beyond the law to prevent traders from buying.

He said the government had cancelled the licenses of several merchants on flimsy grounds. A merchant even faced criminal charges for lifting more than 250 quintals of wheat, he said.

The arhtiyas and merchants, on their part, have been telling farmers that they can get higher prices for wheat if the government allows them, Says Mittal, “an average farmer, knows the international price of wheat and wants to get the same,”

And how does the farmer know the international price? “We tell them, we have to look after their interest,” he said.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 22, 1992