One week later, rice millers resume purchase of basmati

Our Correspondent

Fazilka, January 20

One week after the standoff between rice millers and truck operators, purchase of basmati variety of paddy began today.

Over 40,000 bags, with each bag weighing 35 kg, had been lying in the local grain market.

Farmer Krishan Lal of Kandhwala Amarkot village said his paddy was purchased by the rice millers after five days.

The truck operators had stopped lifting the purchased paddy lying in the local grain market.

President of the Fazilka-Ladhuka Rice Millers Association Arun Dhuria said the purchase had come to standstill, as some truck operators had allegedly formed a cartel and started charging exorbitant fee from the millers, resulting in a dispute. The farmers were at the receiving end, as they had to take care of their produce which was lying in the open in the grain market.

On the complaint of Dhuria, patron of the Truck Operators Welfare Association Baldev Singh, who is also the Block Samiti vice-chairman and a close aide of Fazilka Congress MLA Davinder Singh Ghubaya, society president Niranjan Singh and 15 other persons were booked on January 14 for allegedly issuing threats to outside truckers and extorting them.

The truck operator had pleaded that they had been facing a starvation-like situation and the millers seeking trucks from outside was uncalled for. They had staged a protest against the Fazilka police demanding cancellation of FIR.

Following the dispute between the rice millers and the truck operators, the purchase of basmati variety of paddy had been stopped by the millers, who are the bulk buyers of the variety.