DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday lashed out at Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa, accusing him of misleading people with his "half-baked knowledge" on paddy variety PR-126. Mann's reaction came after Leader of Opposition in the state Bajwa slammed the Mann-led government for its "ill-advised" promotion of certain paddy varieties, including PR-126.

In a statement, Bajwa claimed that the rice millers across the state have refused to accept PR-126 and other hybrid varieties and with this, the "crisis" in grain markets has "deepened".

"Paddy lifting has slowed to a crawl, leaving farmers stranded in 'mandis' for days, forced to endure sleepless nights," claimed Bajwa, pointing to the "growing distress" among farmers in the paddy procurement season.

The AAP government, Bajwa alleged, "aggressively" pushed the PR-126 variety ahead of the sowing season, claiming it would save water and electricity.

"Despite these assurances, rice millers have refused the crop, citing concerns over a lower than expected out-turn ratio (post-milling yield). The Punjab government has since ordered retesting of the variety to clarify the yield, but farmers remain at risk" he alleged.

Responding to Bajwa's claims, CM Mann hit out at the Congress leader, saying it is high time he bid good bye to politics as he is continuously telling "lies" for hogging media limelight.

Bajwa's statement on PR-126 variety is completely "irresponsible, baseless, irrational and misleading," he said.

He said experts of the Punjab Agricultural University have repeatedly emphasised that as compared to long duration variety (Pusa 44), PR-126 saves 20-25 per cent water.

Likewise, Mann said it has lesser straw load (10 per cent), provides 25-40 days more window period for residue management along with saving about Rs 5,000 per acre of input costs, thereby immensely benefitting the farmers.

The CM claimed that due to all these benefits, this variety gained high popularity among the technology-savvy farmers of the state with expansion of area from 13.9 to 45.0 per cent during the last five years.

Rubbishing Bajwa's claims, Mann said a meeting was also convened with the president of the All India Rice Millers Association and its representatives on May 9 in Mohali, where full satisfaction was expressed with the milling quality of PR-126 by rice millers.

Mann said the Congress leader is just issuing "baseless statements" to mislead farmers and the

general public.
(editor@dailyworld.in)