Kurukshetra, Sep 23 Farmers, who were staging a sit-in near the Barara highway (State Highway 4), demanding paddy procurement at state-run centres, ended their protest on Wednesday evening after reaching an agreement with the district administration.
Farmers had been staging the protest near the highway since Tuesday, and around noon on Wednesday, they tried to move towards the highway, but police stopped them.
The farmers were later persuaded to meet Deputy Commissioner Vishram Kumar Meena.
The administration agreed to begin weighing paddy from Thursday and issue ‘gate passes’ from September 25, officials said.
Gate passes in the mandis are official digital or physical entry tokens required for farmers to bring their agricultural produce into the grain markets for government procurement.
Farmers called the agreement a victory and celebrated by dancing on the highway before ending their sit-in.
Meena, at a press conference, said it had been decided to carry out biometric verification of farmers whose paddy has already been brought to the mandi and stacked at the existing location. This would save farmers from taking their produce back and bringing it again for verification, thereby avoiding additional transportation costs, Meena added.
Earlier on Tuesday, police had used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesting members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Charuni) who blocked the Delhi-Chandigarh GT Road at Shahabad demanding that the government immediately begin paddy procurement at state-run procurement centres.
(PTI News)
