Arhtiyas end strike, wheat procurement to resume in Punjab

Chandigarh: Punjab's wheat procurement is set to resume after arhtiyas (commission agents) on Wednesday ended their week-long strike following talks with agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian and water resources minister Barinder Kumar Goyal.While the Punjab govt said the strike had been "called off", the Federation of Arhtiyas Association maintained that the protest had only been suspended for the wheat procurement season and would resume later."In view of the losses suffered by farmers due to inclement weather, we have decided to pause the strike for now and participate in procurement operations," association president Vijay Kalra told TOI. "We will resume our protest against the state govt and the Centre after procurement is over."Khudian said the recent spell of bad weather had added to farmers' distress and called for cooperation among all stakeholders. He directed officials to ensure smooth, transparent and hassle-free procurement, while assuring that the concerns of arhtiyas would be taken up.The arhtiyas have been demanding restoration of the 2.5% dami (commission) system, which was replaced by the Centre with a fixed per-quintal rate. Though the rate was raised from Rs 46 to Rs 50.75 per quintal for the 2026-27 season, the agents say it still falls short of their traditional entitlement and does not reflect rising costs.Other demands include reimbursement of Rs 55 crore deducted by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) as Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), withdrawal of a policy reducing commission for grains stored in modern silos, and commission parity with Haryana.