Agents,Ferozepur admn differ on loading rates

In the ongoing wheat procurement season,a standoff has been created between the ahrtiyas of Ferozepur cantonment and the district administration after the contractor refused to load and unload wheat.The wheat,though,has not started coming in mandis but it is expected to arrive within this week. As per the information available,the contractor had been allotted a rate of Rs 1.73 per 50kg wheat for transporting it from mandi to the storage house. This was as per the lowest bid filed by him. However,he has now refused to work at the old rates and even ahrtiyas are not ready to take up lifting at this rate. Nand Kishore Gugan,President of Ferozepur Ahrtiya Association,said,“Rs 1.73 per 50 kg bag of wheat is too little. The truckers are not ready to take less than Rs 2.50 per 50 kg bag. So we in any case will not do the lifting at this rate. The farmers have been told to not bring wheat in mandis only because of this tussle,and once the produce starts coming,it can create a glut if the crisis is not solved.”

As of now,only 64 tonnes of wheat has arrived in various mandis of Ferozepur district and out of this 14 tonnes in Fazilka has been purchased. “The rest is still lying in mandis because of high moisture content,” said DC Kamal Kishore Yadav. About the lifting problem,he said,“Today itself we have ordered re-tendering and we are hopeful that this crisis will be solved in a day or two.”