Raghbir Singh Brar
Email:raghbirsinghbrar.gmail.com
Faridkot
April 30,2026
DC Faridkot Punamdeep Kaur has instructed the concerned officials to further speed up the lifting and personally supervise the work.She said that over 99 percent produce arrived in the grain markets of the district has been procured and most of it has been lifted.The rest of the produce would be lifted soon,” she said.
The slow lifting has badly hit the small commission agents in the district who alleged that they were being ousted from their small business due to the alleged corrupt system.
The system they speak about the policial nexus between the the contractors and local leaderships of the ruling party,which allegedly accommodates the big commission agents and leaves the small ones suffering.
“In grain market Kotkapura,we are suffering a lot due to the slow lifting.I had an arrival of about 25000 bags of wheat out of which only 1000 has been lifted so far.The problems is all pervasive, this is not Kotkapura grain market alone.we are not provided the required number of vehicles and also there shortage of the unloading labour at the end point,means the godowns of the all agencies,” said one commission agent wishing not to be quoted.
“The lifting is a big problem.We are not getting required number of the transporting vehicles.If you have your own vehicles,you can load your procured produce and may get some relief,but on the other hand,if you rely on the contractor, you may not get required transport.There is an exploitation of the commission agents.Even the transporters who were assigned to reach a destination to load the produce, demande dus Rs 500 to load the produce from our shop,otherwise they divert.. Three days back, we opposed it and now the movement has further slowed down,’ alleged a commission agent from Kotkapura wishing not to be named due to backlash.
When contacted,Umesh Garg,president of ahartia association Kotkapura said that due to the all of the sudden arrival,issue was created.”The procurement started on April 14th and we got about 14(10 lakh govt and 4 lakh private) lakh bags of wheat.There were four specials ,one in Kotkapura,two in Baghapurana and one in Faridkot.In five days,6 lakh bags of wheat from the grain market Kotkpaura were lifted, we can not say it slow,” Garg said.
“Four days were wasted due to special otherwise more lifting could have bene done,’ said Garg.
“We have a slip system at a shop and accordingly, the produce is lifted from each shop,’ he said.
“Thye actual problem is with the contractor who does not provide vehicles and shortage of the labour at the unloading point.If you have your own vehicles, you can load those and get your produce lifted ,otherwise you have to face the problems,” said another commission agent.
“The lifting is worst here.The contractor does not provide needed vehicles.If we have to arrange our own transport for lifting, we are required to pay Rs 5 per bag,while the contractor pays us only Rs 3 per bag.It is the responsibility of the procurement agencies to lift the procured produce within 72 hours.But nobody listen to us.We are going to be ruined.Only big commission agents have all the arrangements of their own to lift the produce,while,those,who are small and rely on the contractor, are at the mercy of the system,” lamented another commission agent from Faridkot,wishing not to be quoted.
“It is the problem of most of the people,if I am named, I may be targetted.Nobody listens to us.No concerned officials of the agencies attend our phones,’ he said.
“Please publish the story of very poor lifting in the grain market Kotkapura,but without naming me,” said another commission agent from Kotkpaura.
When contacted,Baljinder Kumar Garg,president of the ahartia association Farikdot expressed his satisfaction over lifting.
“Now there is no problem with lifting.It is going on smoothly,” he said.
“About 60 per cent lifting has been done,” Garg said.
Gurtej Singh Bittu,chairman Galla Majdoor union Kotkapura said that as for the Kotkapura grian market is concerned,it is still going on.”But I get phone calls from the village yards where the labour says that the lifting is very poor.The labour suffers because of the prolonged season due to non lifting, as they get only fixed charges.We have to guard the procured produce which is at the risk of being stolen.Apart from it, as per the government specifications, the produce with 12 per cent moisture has been purchased while now it has been left with only 9 per cent moisture,so it leads to the shortage.The main problem is the poor availability of the vehicles and shortage of the labour at unloading points,’ said Bittu.
Official figure
By April 28 evening,417854 LMT of wheat had been purchased in the district out of the total arrival of 417854 LMT of wheat.About 99.92 per cent of wheat has been procured in 24 hours.
“About 233085 LMT of the wheat has been lifted and Rs 910 crore of the payment has been made to the farmers,” said DC Faridkot Punamdeep Kaur in a press release to the media yesterday.
The DC Faridkot,Punamdeep Kaur directed the concerned officials and directed them to speed up the lifting in the district,’ the press note reads.
She ordered the officials of the Mandi board,FCI and Food and Civil supplies to personally pay attention to speed up the lifting.
According to the official press release of the DPRO office Faridkot,233085 lakh MT of wheat has been lifted out of the total procured 417854 LMT.Only 184769 LMT was lying unlifted in the grain markets by April 28 and now more lifting may have been done leaving small margin of unlifted produce.