Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa has demanded that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann immediately compensate Punjab’s rice millers, who are staring at losses estimated at Rs 6000 crore due to the government's gross mismanagement of the rice procurement crisis.
Bajwa condemned Mann’s so-called "Plan B" for paddy milling as a "Plan Bluff," accusing the CM of attempting to mislead the public and drive a wedge between farmers and rice millers. In a recent meeting, rice millers revealed to Bajwa that CM Mann proposed transporting Punjab’s paddy to distant states like West Bengal and Kerala for milling. Bajwa lambasted the proposal as absurd, both logistically and financially.
"Transporting paddy over such vast distances is economically unfeasible. Who would bear the cost of milling in those far-flung states when it’s financially unviable? The nearest state capable of milling rice is Haryana, with around 1,500 shellers, and even they have no capacity to handle paddy from outside their own borders," Bajwa said. He accused Mann of abdicating his responsibility as the elected leader of Punjab and acting more like a "Maharaja of Satauj," issuing impractical orders rather than addressing the crisis head-on.
"Instead of finding solutions to the very real issues that rice millers are grappling with, Mann is attempting to intimidate them and create unnecessary rifts with farmers through irresponsible and misleading statements," Bajwa remarked. The root of the current crisis, according to Bajwa, is Mann’s reckless endorsement of the hybrid PR-126 paddy variety, which has resulted in significant losses for millers. The PR-126 variety yields only 62 kilograms of rice per quintal, in stark contrast to the 67 kilograms produced by traditional varieties.
