BAREILLY: Turned away repeatedly at the government procurement centre at Lakhimpur Kheri’s Mohammadi mart, a farmer set his paddy, estimated to be about 100 quintals, on fire. By the time the fire was doused, several quintals had been reduced to ashes. A video of the incident has gone viral and attracted a tweet from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Pramod Singh had brought his paddy for weighing at the centre at his allotted time on October 15, but the centre in-charge allegedly refused to buy the crop, citing higher moisture level in the grain than prescribed. He asked the farmer to wait for two days. Heavy rainfall on October 17 completely drenched his crop kept in the open, forcing Singh to wait for some more days to get the paddy grains dry.
On Friday, when he returned with the paddy at “the moisture level under the prescribed limit”, the centre in-charge again refused to weigh it and asked him to wait for another day.
This was the last straw for Singh. He rushed and bought a can of petrol, poured it over the paddy and set it afire even as other farmers tried to stop him. The fire was doused but the damage was done.
Sub divisional magistrate Pankaj Srivastava rushed to the spot to calm frayed tempers.
Speaking with TOI, a farmer at the centre alleged, “The in-charge at procurement centres do not buy our crop till we approach them through an influential politician or official. They have a nexus with middlemen who offer lesser amount for our yield and sell it at the government centres. No government has managed to change this process.”
This year, the middlemen are offering Rs 1,100 for a quintal of paddy as against the government rate at Rs 1940.
On his part, SDM Srivastava claimed, “I had a word with the farmer on Wednesday and advised him to sell half of the paddy which was dry and the remaining crop after it gets dry. But he said he wants to sell all of it at one go on Friday. The centre in-charge was in the process of weighing his crop when suddenly his son arrived and set the paddy on fire just to create unnecessary pressure on the administration.”
