GUJRAT: Getting gunny bags has become a daunting task for the growers after the government involved the Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) for their verification for the wheat procurement drive.

The farmers complain that the process of getting gunny bags has been made complex and lengthy due to the verification and reverification by the computerised land record centres (CLRCs) of the PLRA since the centre’s data has only column of owners instead of a separate column for the growers.

Previously, the manual record of the land revenue department used to be the source of confirmation of data for issuance of gunny bags and it had separate columns of owners and growers in the record which led to quick process of confirmation. A patwari would enter the fresh data of gardawari (fresh survey of the agricultural land) every year ahead of the procurement drive.

The revenue officials claim that the policy of involving the PLRA for verification is aimed at getting rid of the fake farmers who would always manage to get extra gunny bags.

A senior official at a CLRC told Dawn that the officials could verify only the name of owners due absence of a column of growers in the CLRC data though the owners had mostly allotted their land on contract to growers. However, he said the services of patwaris with manual record had again been hired for verification by the CLRC as they had growers record along with the owners.

The officials in land revenue department suggested that the government should include the growers column in the computerised record of the land to avoid the abovementioned problem.

As per the government policy, the land owner or grower of at least 10 acres can apply for gunny bags. The applicants apply with the food department, then the data is sent to the land revenue department, the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and now the PLRA for the verification and cross verification.

A delegation of growers, being led by Kissan Board Pakistan central president Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed advocate, in a meeting with the Gujrat deputy commissioner the other day had raised the issues being faced by the growers regarding gunny bags and the DC assured the farmers of the administration’s support in resolving their issues.

Gujrat district has a target of procuring 280,000 wheat bags from its five procurement centres in Gujrat, Jalalpur Jattan, Mungowal, Lalamusa and Dinga and 14,000 farmers are registered with it.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018