Centre’s new milling norms anti-Punjab: state Cong chief
Monday, 15/09/2014
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CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday said here the new union government norms for paddy procurement and milling were yet another “big setback to Punjab”.
He opposed the decision to bring down the tolerable limit of moisture content in paddy from 15% to 14%, saying it would affect both farmers and millers adversely. “Even earlier, the procurement agencies have been rejecting paddy on the slightest extra moisture content. The new norms will create further complications for rice millers, as milling now will not be conducive,” he stated.
Bajwa said he feared untimely rain in the region would raise the moisture content to a level where it would take a lot of time for paddy to dry. He also criticised the decision to reduce the milling period by about two months. Earlier, it ended on June 30, and now has to wind up on April 15. “With the amount of paddy arriving in state’s grain markets, it’ll be impossible for the millers to complete the job within the curtailed period,” said the state Congress leader.
He accused chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of not raising his voice against “anti-Punjab decisions” by own coalition government at the Centre. “He had been promising people all along that a friendly government at the Centre would end all alleged discrimination against the state. It is union finance minister Arun Jaitley who rejected his demand for a special economic package on the grounds that the state had got more than its fair share of funds from the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) regime. This was the first setback to Punjab, and the new paddy norms are another,” said Bajwa.
