Chandigarh, April 8 Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini accused the opposition on Wednesday of spreading "misinformation" that his government had imposed many unnecessary conditions on the purchase of crops.
The government has implemented comprehensive reforms in the procurement system and appointed nodal officers in every mandi (grain market), Saini said after chairing a meeting of the state cabinet here.
He said that these technology-based initiatives have enhanced transparency, accountability and efficiency in the procurement process, ultimately benefiting farmers.
He said that the responsibility of regularly monitoring mandis across districts has been assigned to senior officials, and deputy commissioners (DCs) have been made in charge of procurement arrangements.
Saini appealed to farmers to extend their cooperation in the implementation of the measures.
On Tuesday, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that he was told by farmers about "chaotic conditions" in the mandis.
The leader of the opposition said that instead of procuring wheat and mustard, the BJP government imposed conditions on farmers.
"Farmers find themselves entangled in the bureaucratic maze of fulfilling requirements such as portal registration, gate passes, guarantors, biometric verification, tractor registration numbers, and general verification, and they are consequently forced to wait for several days just to sell their produce," Hooda said.
Saini insisted that the measures will make the procurement system more transparent, secure, and farmer-friendly.
A part of the new measures is a mandatory three-tier crop verification system.
Under this system, crops brought to procurement centres will be matched with the crops registered by the farmer, and an Aadhaar-based biometric identification of farmers will be done.
As of April 8, 75 per cent of wheat brought to mandis had been successfully verified through biometric authentication. Keeping farmers' convenience in mind, up to three nominated individuals have also been permitted for biometric verification, he said.
Saini said that all mandis and warehouses have been brought under geo-fencing to prevent unauthorised usage and strengthen location-based monitoring.
So far, geo-fencing has been completed for 416 wheat mandis, 112 mustard mandis, and 179 additional locations to handle higher arrivals.
In addition, 1,344 storage points have also been geo-fenced to ensure safe and systematic storage of food grains.
It has been made mandatory to record the vehicle number and capture photographs of the vehicle/load while issuing entry gate passes.
In cases of very old or new vehicles where a vehicle number may not be available, gate passes can be issued based on vehicle photographs alone.
The chief minister said that before stock is moved out of mandis, mandatory approval from both the transporter and the market committee secretary must be ensured for exit gate passes.
As of April 8, a total of 1,74,635 exit gate passes had been issued, Saini said.