Rice Millers in Punjab threaten to boycott lifting
Published on: August 25, 2021.
Filed under:
Demand withdrawal of Centre’s new norms
Fatehgarh Sahib, August 25
Members of the State Rice Millers’ Association today said if the Union Government did not withdraw the newly introduced specifications and the state government did not release their securities worth Rs10 lakh each, which had been made non-refundable, they would boycott the paddy procurement process.
Association state president Tarsem Saini held a meeting under a campaign “Jago”, initiated to create awareness among the millers about the challenges to be faced by the industry in future. He said the major challenge before the industry was the change in specifications by the Centre. He said due to the ongoing agitation of farmers, the Union Government had intentionally changed the specifications in the paddy procurement process by reducing the foreign matter content from 2 per cent to 1 per cent and moisture from 17 per cent to 16 per cent. While, the farm unions had been demanding a hike in these. He said this would lead to another agitation and the millers will have to bear the brunt of these differences between the Centre and the farmers.
He said the Centre wanted to discontinue the procurement of paddy due to excess grain by adopting such means and it will ruin the industry. He also urged the state government to look into the matter for the cause of the millers.
The association state president urged the state government to refund their securities worth Rs 10 lakh each, which had been declared non-refundable just to compensate the defaulter rice millers, who committed fraud with the government. “We have been urging the government to allot paddy to Rice mills after verifying their financial status, so that genuine millers do not suffer and loss could be avoided,” he said.
Source/Credit: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/rice-millers-in-punjab-threaten-to-boycott-lifting-302049
