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Bharat Khanna
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, September 3
Around 30,000 tonnes of potato stored in a cold store at Tarkhanwala in Rama block of Bathinda has rotted due to the alleged negligence of the owner, leaving a number of farmers in the lurch.
Though the owner has reportedly assured the farmers to return their money or purchase potato bags from other cold stores, farmers are apprehensive. They reached the Horticulture Department for justice, but in vain as all cold stores have been de-controlled by the state government.
A farmer of Mallwala village, Harbhinder Singh, said, “We stored more than 12,000 bags including 6,000 bags of potato seeds, but all have rotted in Tarkhanwala cold store. Many other farmers lost their whole produce as the owner stopped the electricity supply to save money. We approached horticulture officials but they said they could do nothing. We’ll wait for two more days and then will get a case registered against the cold store owner if he fails to repay us.”
Notably, cold stores in Bathinda have doubled the storage costs for potato this year as compared to last year. Besides, cold stores take 50 to 75 per cent of the payment in advance from potato growers.
“Some farmers came to us but we have no power to act on cold stores as they have been de-controlled,” said Gurkewal Singh Dhillon, Deputy Director, Horticulture Mission, Bathinda.
The cold store owner could not be contacted but Chief Agriculture Officer, Bathinda, RK Singla said, “The matter is not in our knowledge as the Horticulture Department will look into it.”
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