PIL filed in High Court on 'raw slip' system of farmers in Haryana
State Bureau, Chandigarh. Raising serious questions about the system of so-called 'Kachchi Parchi' being given to the farmers by the commission agents in the grain markets of Haryana, a PIL has been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging this entire system. This PIL has been filed by Dr. Virendra Singh Lather, who is a former Principal Scientist of Genetics and Cytogenetics at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and Haryana Agricultural University.
Dr. Lather has demanded in the petition that the 'raw slip' system given to farmers should be immediately stopped and in its place printed sales receipts should be compulsorily issued. It has been alleged in the petition that this parallel and informal system is not only illegal, but through it, farmers are being exploited on a large scale by paying them less than the minimum support price.
It has been clarified in the petition that this printed receipt should contain the name and address of the concerned shop, serial number and date and should be made available to the farmer immediately after the sale of the crop, so that complete transparency in the transaction can be ensured. Dr. Lather says that at present, in many mandis, the commission agents make less payment to the farmers on the basis of 'raw slip', whereas in the government records, the crop purchase is shown at MSP, which creates a huge gap between the actual payment and the official figures.
The petitioner has also urged the court to direct the state government to set up a special 24-hour helpline number for speedy redressal of farmers' complaints. Along with this, a demand has been made to order the concerned officials to issue 'J-Form' to the farmers immediately after the sale of the crop, so that there is no scope for any kind of delay or manipulation in the payment process.
Lather has also mentioned in the petition that he had submitted a detailed representation to the state government regarding this alleged illegal practice but despite this, no concrete action has been taken till now. They allege that this system of 'raw slip' defeats the very spirit of agricultural market regulation laws and seriously weakens transparency and accountability in the sale of agricultural produce.
According to the petition, if this system is not banned, the interests of farmers will continue to be harmed and the government MSP system will remain limited to paper only. The High Court will hear this petition on January 27.
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