Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday accused the BJP-led Central Government of acting at the behest of the Akalis to deliberately create shortage of gunny bags with an aim of obstructing the procurement process in order to defame the Congress Government in the State in this election period.
“While Punjab, with its glut production of wheat, is being made to sweat it out for gunny bags, the neighbouring Haryana is being supplied extra bags by the Centre to ensure smooth and streamlined procurement operations there ahead of May 12 polling,” said the Chief Minister, lashing out at the Central Government for diverting the much-needed bales from Punjab to Haryana.
He said four lakh bags (16,000 bales) had been diverted from Punjab to Haryana.
For the first time since taking over, the Congress government in Punjab was having problems in procurement, due to the Centre’s politically-motivated actions in depriving the state of its much-needed supply of bags, said Capt Amarinder while accusing the BJP-led Central Government of acting at the behest of its allies, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), to mess up the procurement process at mandis.
“In contrast, the BJP government in Haryana is getting additional bags to handle the excess production of wheat this year,” said the Chief Minister, lashing out at the Centre for once again giving Punjab a step-motherly treatment to promote is political interests in this election year.
To make the situation worse, the glut production from Haryana was being pushed into Punjab through the open borders, said the Chief Minister, adding that he had instructed officials to stop such attempts.
The Chief Minister said that the BJP must put an immediate end to such petty tactics to promote its electoral prospects.
The Punjab Government had been repeatedly taking up the issue of shortage of gunny bags with the Centre and the FCI, said Capt Amarinder, disclosing that he personally spoke to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) chairman DV Prasad a day before.
“As a central agency, the FCI was working under direct orders from the Central Government which is acting in a totally partisan manner to create political problems for the Congress-led government in Punjab,” he added.
In fact, the state’s Principal Secretary KAP Sinha also wrote to Centre’s Secretary (Food and Public Distribution) on Saturday warning that if the shortage of bales persists, it could lead to a law and order situation in the State.
As of May 3, 105.4 LMT of wheat had arrived in the mandis, with another 15-16 LMT expected to arrive by May 6, he pointed out, adding that a serious shortage of A class bales was expected in Bathinda, Mansa, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Muktsar, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur.
Sinha requested that Punjab be allowed to purchase B class bags from the open market to meet the shortfall.
It may be noted that Haryana got permission to use B Class Gunny Bags (subject to satisfactory inspection by FCI), but the same was denied to Punjab.
This was Sinha’s second such letter in four days but with the FCI failing to respond, the situation was likely to aggravate, with a total of 132 LMT of wheat expected to arrive in the Mandis this season.