On the evacuation of foodgrain stock, Bittu claimed that 187 rakes of wheat and 87 rakes of rice had been moved out of Punjab in one month alone.The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Malvinder Singh Kang said’ “There is no issue with the seeds. If there were a problem with the seeds, how could the central government have issued a CCL for purchasing paddy? If there was a seed issue, the central government wouldn’t release funds. He is just saying so to spread confusion and mislead the people.”Kang said that the PR-126 seed was developed by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) with consensus from all relevant institutions, including rice millers, and it was approved by the central government. Whenever PAU prepares a new seed, it does so with collective agreement. This seed has been sown in Punjab for seven years without any issues. Now, when the central government has failed to lift the crops, they talk about having the seeds tested by IIT Kanpur.On the slow lifting of grain, Kang pointed “If the central government claims to have lifted 15 lakh metric tons of grain in October, why didn’t it do so from January? If 15 lac metric tons had been lifted each month since January, by September there would have been enough space cleared for over 120 lakh metric tons of grain. Then this issue wouldn’t exist. This clearly shows that the BJP government is deliberately causing slow lifting to ruin Punjab.”Kang stated that the central government also held meetings with sheller owners but offered no solutions, sending everyone back disappointed.The leader of the Opposition and senior Congress Partap Singh Bajwa also hit out at both the state and central governments.
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