Thousands of wheat bags submerged in rainwater

Thousands of weighed wheat bags lying in the open in one of the region’s biggest grain markets here have been submerged in water following incessant rain last night, resulting in considerable damage to the sold wheat.

The farmers are expressing concern over the damage to their produce due to the heavy rainfall. The situation is worse in rural mandis as wheat bags have been lying on brick floors.

Malkeet Singh of border village, Mahatam Nagar, said termite had started attacking the wet bags due to brick flooring, causing financial losses to farmers and commission agents.

Notably due to the non-lifting of wheat, the produce has been kept on roads and some bags had also been stacked on low-lying roads for want of space.

Arhtiya Association Fazilka president Sanjeev Sachdeva Goldy said about 9 lakh bags (each bag weighing 50 kg) had been awaiting lifting in the Fazilka grain market.

He said commission agents were forced to stock the sold wheat bags in the open due to delay in lifting.

District Food and Supplies Controller, Fazilka, Vandana Kamboj, said they would soon make arrangements for the segregation of the wet bags. However, blaming the Mandi Board authorities, she alleged that no proper arrangements for the disposal of water had been made, resulting in the stagnation of rainwater.

It was stated that the contractor concerned had failed to provide the desired number of trucks, resulting in the glut of the sold wheat in the mandi.

Damage in Muktsar too

In Mukstar, rain caused damage to wheat stock lying in the open at various mandis across the district, with farmers, commission agents and labourers claiming heavy losses.

They said the quality of the rain-soaked grain would deteriorate and could take up to 10 days to dry properly.

The situation has been further aggravated by the slow pace of lifting from the grain markets. For the past several days, both farmers and labourers were raising concerns over delayed transportation of wheat. Sukhwinder Singh, District Food and Civil Supplies Controller, Muktsar, had, however, been constantly claiming that the wheat lifting was gaining momentum by the day.

Punjab