Chandigarh: Irked over new quality specification fixed by the Union government for the procurement of paddy millers and farmers in Punjab has threatened to boycott the procurement process.
Farmers termed the new rules as an indirect attack on farmers as they have been protesting against the three contentious farm laws for more than nine months.
As per the new specifications in case of rice, stricter quality control measures have been put in place for the millers as broken grain percentage has been reduced to 20% from the earlier 25%.
Besides this, moisture content in rice being received from millers has been reduced from 15 percent to 14 percent. While, damaged grain has come from 3 percent to 2 percent and the red grains, which earlier had the limit of 3%, will not be accepted as per new specifications.
Similarly, paddy unloaded at grain markets, the central government has reduced the moisture content limit from 17% to 16%, while the permissible limit of foreign matter (organic and inorganic) has been lowered from 2% to 1%. The percentage of discoloured, sprouted and damaged has been reduced to 3% from 5%.
Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of BKU (Dakaunda), said the Centre is hell-bent on taking anti-farmer stance and they will not accept this.
President of the Punjab Rice Millers Association Tarsem Saini said the new specifications are neither miller-friendly nor farmer or consumer-friendly and they will boycott it.
Earlier, Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Kumar had written to Union minister for consumer affairs, food and Public distribution Piyush Goyal on August 29, appealing him to put these specifications on hold immediately.