It is a welcome move if the government introduces-Jagjeet Singh Dallewal, state president of BKU Sidhu pur Ekta.
The electronic scales can stop the loot of the farmers.
Faridkot
The commission agents from one of the largest grain markets in the region Kotkpura said that they would not sell any wheat to the Food Corporation of India due to its policies, conflicting with the interests of the commission agents and will not implement the computerized/electronic weighing scales.
“As per the policy of the FCI, our interests clash with it and FCI is damaging the commission agents by charging a 30 percent cut on our commission to pay off the benefits to the labour. We don't have regular labour and mostly it is migrant labour, so we have decided to boycott the FCI in the grain market Kotkapura and it has been communicated to the upper body of the state of the commission agents,” said Ashok Kumar Goel, President of Ahartia Association Kotkapura.
We are also not in position to implement the requirement of weighing grains by the computerized scale because of many reasons.
“First of all, it should be handled very carefully which is not possible and secondly, labour or others weighing labour of the produce may manipulate it. The farmers' produce could be weighed excessively and our image could be dented,” said Ashok Goel.
Sanjay Mittal, another commission agent from Koktpaura said that we have already made a lot of investment on buying mechanical scales and they are understood by every farmer.
“They endure dust and dragging without any power, but the electronic scales may not work in dust and mishandling by the labour. They are also tricky to the farmers,” said Sanjay Mittal, a commission agent from grain Market Kotkapura.
“As far as FCI is concerned, it has already stopped buying produce from grain market Kotkpaura because of our protest two three years back,” said Sanjay Mittal.
Government must implement the electronic scales in grain markets, we shall be thankful to it-Jagjeet Singh Dallewal
When contacted, Jagjeet Singh Dallewal, state president of the BKU Sidhupur Ekta said that I fail to understand why the commission agents are opposing introducing electronic scales.
"It is the need of the hour. Everything is being weighed by the new scales now. They tell us that even if a single gram of anything is weighed excessively, the shopkeers correct the weight. Even from the vegetable vendors to grocery shops to the record of the weight of the thousands of tons of trailers is done on such scales. But the produce of the farmers is weighed on old fashioned farshi kandas, on which it is weighed more ranging between 100 grams to 500 grams and is considered normal. So I request the government to introduce this system of weighing in grain markets and if it is introduced, we shall welcome it and shall be thankful to the government," said Jagjeet Singh Dallewal, state president of BKU Sidhupur Ekta.