Kotkapura Market Committee secretary suspended

Faridkot, December 5

Under attack for issuing release orders of about 13,000 bags of paddy and basmati, the Punjab Mandi Board has suspended the secretary of the Kotkapura Market Committee.

The bags had been recovered from a defunct rice mill in Kotkapura about two week ago. While the owner of the defunct rice mill claimed the paddy belong to a Kotkapura-based trading company which had got the possession of the non-operational rice mill for use as a store, the trading firm has not laid any claim on the paddy so far despite a notice by the Market Committee.

Days before the recovery of this unauthorised 13,000 bags of paddy from Ber Wali village in the Kotkapura area, Markfed had recovered about 20,000 alleged unauthorised bags from the premises of Victoria Foods Rice Mill. The mill is a sister concern of the Kotkapura-based trading firm.

The police had registered a case under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act and Section 420 of the IPC against the owners of Victoria Foods Rice Mill on November 16.

Two days after the recovery of 20,000 paddy bags, the Kotkapura Market Committee recovered 13,000 paddy bags from Ber Wali village.

Gurlal Singh, secretary, who has been suspended, claimed that five days after the recovery of the unauthorised stock, many farm union leaders started a protest in front of his office, demanding release of the paddy stock. “As a farmer even attempted suicide in front of my office, I issued verbal orders to release the paddy,” he said. — TNS

Had released 13K ‘unauthorised’ paddy bags

• The bags were recovered from a defunct rice mill in Kotkapura
• Initially, the mill owner claimed the paddy belonged to farmers who had stored the crop inside his mill
• Later, he said it belong to a Kotkapura-based trading company

#Faridkot #Kotkapura #Mandi