Across the state, nearly 250 farmers have allegedly been misled after the Mandi Model Law was passed.
Bhopal:
In a potentially embarrassing incident for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, around 150 farmers in four districts were scammed out of nearly 2,600 quintals of crop worth more than 5 million rupees.
Several of the farmers are from the home districts of Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan (Sehore) and Minister of Agriculture Kamal Patel (Harda).
A group of 22 farmers headed to the Dewas Subdivisional Magistrate’s office on Monday to express their anger at what is the latest in a series of such complaints since the state relaxed restrictions on selling abroad. mandis (wholesale markets with controlled prices), very similar to what is proposed by the controversial agricultural laws passed by the center in September.
The farmers who filed Monday’s complaint claim that the merchants purchased the produce on the basis of an expired license apparently issued by a mandi in Dewas. After the checks bounced, the farmers consulted with the mandi and they were told that there was no record of those merchants.
One of the farmers, Kanhaiyaa Patel from Harda, said: “We had given our products according to the decided rates, but we don’t have the money to date. They cheated about 150 farmers in Sehore, Harda and Hoshangabad out of 5 million rupees.”
“I call on the Chief Minister and the Minister of Agriculture to arrest the trader, seize his property and give money to the farmers,” said Rahul Patel, another farmer.
In one of the largest cases of agricultural fraud, farmers from MP Ministry of Agriculture @KamalPatelBJP AND @ChouhanShivraj the home districts of Harda and Sehore were allegedly deceived by merchants #FarmersProtest they allege they escaped with an agricultural crop worth more than Rs 5 to 6 million #FarmersBillpic.twitter.com/zlY3fcv4g3
– Anurag Dwary (@Anurag_Dwary) December 30, 2020
This is far from the only case of its kind in the state.
In Harda, which is the territory of the Minister of Agriculture, Kamal Patel, eight such complaints have been lodged. In Bamori, 18 farmers were tricked with coriander leaves worth Rs 20 lakh. In Gwalior, 24 farmers complained that there is now a missing businessman who has taken products worth Rs 10 lakhs.
Across the state, nearly 250 farmers have been allegedly misled.
Farmers say that some of the companies that have now misled them used to buy produce on the mandi, where there was a guarantee of payment. The state’s new Mandi Model Law, they say, removes this guarantee.
Patel says the government will crack down on these cases and the farmers will get their money back. However, he also asked farmers to sell for cash only, which is a difficult proposition, if not impossible, given the large sums involved.
One of the biggest concerns for farmers is that with little recourse to the courts, farmers will have no choice but to accept settlements from a panel made up of government officials.
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