Haryana govt makes prior e-registration mandatory for outside farmers wishing to sell produce in state

The farmers of the region, protesting against the new farm Laws enacted by the NDA government at the Centre, got another shock on Tuesday when the Haryana government created another hurdle for them. Contrary to the Modi government’s claims to have introduced the laws for their welfare and do away with the Ahartiya system, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP Haryana government on Tuesday made 'prior e-registration' mandatory for farmers of other states wishing to sell their produce in Haryana.

According to Haryana government officials, prior registration on a Haryana government portal is a must for other-state farmers bringing their produce for procurement in government-run ‘mandis’ in the state. Such farmers have to get them registered on “Meri Fasal Mera Byora” portal launched by the Haryana government and upload their details. Every registered farmer will receive an SMS by which they would be informed when they have to bring their produce.

The registration is mandatory for farmers looking to sell non-basmati varieties of rice.

PTI reported that Additional Chief Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, P K Das said, “This time, the government has decided that from October 5 onwards the outside farmers can also register and then we will also give them a schedule and call them. Those who are coming with basmati, are not being stopped as the government does not have to purchase that”.

“But if you look at it, when we are telling farmers in Karnal and elsewhere that we will call them by sending SMS and only then they have to come to mandis with the produce, how can we allow farmers from outside to come and sell at procurement price (without registration on portal). If a farmer from outside the state goes to some miller directly for a private transaction, we have no objection. But for the paddy variety which the government purchases at MSP, what we are saying that we will do procurement, but farmers will have to come through the system,” he said.

He, however, claimed if any mandi has a capacity to handle 4,000 tonnes and if 14,000 tonnes of crop arrives there because farmers are allowed to come without any registration “then there will be complaints that we are not handling it well and it is taking days to clear the mandis”. “We have a better system in place whereby each and every farmer is registered, he is mapped. When we have put a system for Haryana’s farmers, we cannot give latitude to others,” he said.

Replying to a question, Das said after the passage of the three agriculture-related bills, the existing mandi system and MSP mechanism will continue as before.

“We will be procuring in government mandis as earlier. So, those who are going to sell to government mandis will come there. We procure paddy through the Arhtiyas (commission agents) and we pay them their commission, so there is no loss to Arhtiyas as far as the procurement quantity goes,” he said.

Farmer gets the MSP which is the highest available in the market, Das added.

“As far as the farmer goes, even in the new law, MSP is the highest price available in the market, there is no loss to him. And if there is a better price available outside, the farmer gains if he goes there,” he said.

On some farmers alleging delay in paddy procurement in couple of the four districts, where it started four days earlier than scheduled date of October 1, he said this year in four districts - Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Kaithal - some farmers brought their paddy produce to the mandi early.

“We have a registration system on the portal on which they register and are given a schedule to come to mandis. But some came before time and without invitation. Since they had arrived we decided let’s clear the mandis by taking care of these. So, in these four districts, paddy procurement operations started from September 27 and from today operations for crop procurement have started in all the districts,” he said, adding the crop procurement was going on smoothly.