Punjab CM favours middlemen, calls Centre’s direct fee system as ‘provocation’

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday confirmed long-held suspicions that he’s extra involved with the pursuits of the middlemen within the state than that of the farmers when he termed the centre’s transfer on direct fee to farmers for crop procurement as “another provocation” that may worsen the continued disaster over the farm legal guidelines.
Singh alleged that the ‘indifferent attitude’ of the federal government of India wouldn’t assist in resolving the imbroglio. He asserted that the Centre’s makes an attempt to hunt land data for making e-payments to the farmers straight of their financial institution accounts from the Food Corporation of India(FCI) would solely serve to worsen the present scenario.
Punjab CM contended that as a substitute of amicably fixing the difficulty, the Centre was needlessly fuelling additional angst among the many farmers by asking for land data to make e-payments.
Significantly, the FCI has written to the state authorities looking for land data to make direct funds to farmers for crop procurement.
It is value noting that Punjab CM’s criticism over the central authorities’s transfer to make e-payments to the farmers is rooted within the menace that direct funds pose for the longstanding system that’s in place in Punjab since 1967 the place farmers receives a commission by means of ‘Arhtiyas’ (fee brokers). The centre’s transfer may hamper the “excellent relations” that the farmers share with the Arhtiyas, on whom they rely for monetary help in occasions of adversity, he mentioned.
How can the farmers rely on huge company homes to bail them out of their monetary disaster, the Punjab CM requested.
Essentially, the Punjab chief minister is fearful in regards to the pursuits of the middlemen, as a substitute of the farmers, who would straight get their fee of their financial institution accounts from the federal government and won’t need to depend on the arhtiyas for his or her cash.
Punjab Arhtiya Association requires a strike to oppose the centre’s transfer for direct on-line funds to farmers
Interestingly, after the FCI sought land data of farmers from the Director of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department with a purpose to make direct on-line MSP fee to farmers’ financial institution accounts, the Punjab Arhtiya Association final week introduced that they’d go on a strike to oppose the transfer.
The affiliation additionally held that arhtiyas would cease procurement of wheat from subsequent month as a mark of protest. The affiliation claims that the centre is focusing on them for extending their help to the ‘farmers’ protests.
The President of the Punjab Arhtiya Association, Ravinder Cheema, had mentioned final week that they’re calling a gathering of arhtiyas to resolve on what programmes to undertake as part of the strike beginning this week. He additionally alleged that the Punjab authorities has a task in it as it’s not giving in writing to the Centre that as per the state APMC act, the farmers have the choice to get fee straight in their very own accounts or by means of cheques, that are supplied by the arhtiyas.
“We will also carry out a dharna against the state government at Chandigarh if it has not made it clear to the Centre that its own APMC Act gives choice to the farmers for the payment mode,” Cheema mentioned.