kdsingh80 Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/punjab-farmers-demand-special-trains-bihar-and-bring-labourers-paddy-plantation/21116 RAJPURA(Patiala): Facing an acute shortage of migrant labourers for paddy plantation, the peasants of Punjab Thursday demanded to run special rains from Bihar to enable labourers reach Punjab. The paddy season in Punjab has started today. However the paddy plantation is expected to be delayed due to shortage of farm hands. Thousands of labourers reach Punjab every year for paddy plantation to make fast buck. The decline in migrant labourers has been noticed in recent years particularly after center government started NREGA scheme for rural areas. Farmers from Patiala and Sangrur districts, the main paddy growing areas, who gathered at Rajpura railway station to carry migrant labourers with them for the paddy transplantation said that labourers who want to come to Punjab were not getting space in trains. The trains were heavily booked due to summer vacations as many tourists have been coming to Vaishno Devi or Golden temple for pilgrimage, said farmers. Paddy farmers queued up outside the Rajpura railway station with the aim of hiring migrant labourers. Some had even brought liquor to woo the workers. Charanjit Singh and Baljit Singh of village Ghamada district Sangrur came here for migrant labourers said that since state government has fixed the time to start paddy transplantation from June 10 and labourers were not available to them as they cannot rotate by two three farmers. Earlier we have enough time for trans-plantation. Balbir Singh of village Phuman-Wal District Sangrur said “We have been offering many facilities to them (migrant labourers) to accompany with them to their fields”. Union Government should come forwarded to start special trains fro the migrant labourers. "We have no other options other than wheat and paddy as marketing facilty was not available for any other crop”, said Gurdeep Singh and Nahar Singh of Siduwal village of Patiala district. Another reason of labour shortage is the launching of development projects by Bihar and UP governments and introducing NREGA -job guaranteed scheme by centre government. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsingh101 Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 (edited) Looks like the 'sons of farmers' think farming is beneath them now. Edited June 11, 2010 by dalsingh101 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SURYADEV Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 With a shortage of labour, hopefully working/living conditions for the Bihari workers should improve. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsingh101 Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 Our farmers moan too much these days. With increasingly international trade and profitable organic markets, they could rake it in. Hell, I bought some grapes at Sainsburys the other day and they were from India. Opportunity knocks... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted June 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 Many times I read on sikh forums that khalistani sikhs say that migration of Bihari labour is conspiracy of Indian government so that Punjab can become hindu majority state ,now what they have to say when Punjabi farmers are demanding that labour should come to Punjab 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaikaara Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 kdsingh saab now the khali - astanis will say that those farmers are RAW agents, they are creating a need ! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsingh101 Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 A visiting 'uncle ji' from Panjab was telling me about the shortage of Bihari labour problem 4/5 years ago. Panjabis need to either do the Biharis work themselves or shut the hell up btw. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaikaara Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 veer ji if our punjabi putttars work in their own fields who will got to work in the gore's fields ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsingh101 Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 (edited) veer ji if our punjabi putttars work in their own fields who will got to work in the gore's fields ? Veer, don't you think we have the balance of how many of us work the gore's fields with how many of us are around back home to look after Panjab's fields, right now? Edited June 11, 2010 by dalsingh101 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaikaara Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 whats the prob if biharis drop in , the guys are going out to earn dollars and euros and are paying in rupees, its helping the economy, i dont see a prob with biharis dropping in for work. its not possible for those guys to work in bihar , conditions are not favorable, if u look at the poverty there trust me, u will have tears rolling down yor eyes. my wife has stayed there for 17 years of her life. the incidents i heard are really terrible. the tribals there who work in homes are ready to eat anything, even if its rotten ! why hate biharis btw ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyhp32 Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 (edited) Doesn't look like any of you actually have any experience of or knowledge of what farming entails in Punjab. It's not the lack of family members of farmers beinh workshy which is contributing to the need for Bhaiyas. It's impossible for a few family members to manage the labour intensive tasks such as sowing rice, planting wheat and harvesting which have to done during a specific short timeframe. A few decades ago the field labour work was done by 'laagis' who would be paid mainly in kind. Since the 70s this has changed as the sons of the village laagis have got access to education and job reservation and naturally look down on field labour work. Hence the need for Bhaiyas during these times. The shortage of Bhaiya labour now is because of guaranteed work schemes running in Bihar which provides the Bhaiyas good wages. What the Punjab government needs is to mechanise farming by providing combine harvesters, rice sowing machines etc Edited June 11, 2010 by tonyhp32 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted June 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 Doesn't look like any of you actually have any experience of or knowledge of what farming entails in Punjab. It's not the lack of family members of farmers beinh workshy which is contributing to the need for Bhaiyas. It's impossible for a few family members to manage the labour intensive tasks such as sowing rice, planting wheat and harvesting which have to done during a specific short timeframe. A few decades ago the field labour work was done by 'laagis' who would be paid mainly in kind. Since the 70s this has changed as the sons of the village laagis have got access to education and job reservation and naturally look down on field labour work. Hence the need for Bhaiyas during these times. The shortage of Bhaiya labour now is because of guaranteed work schemes running in Bihar which provides the Bhaiyas good wages. What the Punjab government needs is to mechanise farming by providing combine harvesters, rice sowing machines etc I appreciate your knowledge of agricultural system of Punjab ,but there is one question .Punjab is state with only 50,000 sq km area and 25 million population State govt jobs are like peanuts.There is hardly any news of industrial revolution in Punjab so the question with 500 persons per sqkm what the people of Punjab are doing?.Is Punjab now a state of old ,handicapped and idle people.Also not to forget that large part of Punjab is in pakistan and their is no Bihari or bangladeshi labour to work in their fields. but hardly any news of agricultural failure or anything is coming from pakistani Punjab.How are they managaing their farms? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsingh101 Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 (edited) I wouldn't say there is 'agricultural failure' in Panjab but the farms could definitely be run better. More modern, organic etc. The rate for organic is apparently about 3 times the rate for non-organic. The last I heard, they were leaving sacks of wheat to rot outside as the space was being used to store cases of alcohol. So we haven't got any sort of food shortage. Maybe some entrepreneurial skills are required? There are just so many markets in health food, flowers, organic now. Edited June 11, 2010 by dalsingh101 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyhp32 Posted June 13, 2010 Report Share Posted June 13, 2010 Kdsingh80, There's a lot of difference between West Punjab and East Punjab. In west Punjab areas the laagis are still kept under conditions of serfdom. The landholdings and held by very few and a majority are landless and hence have no option but to work as farm labour. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SURYADEV Posted June 13, 2010 Report Share Posted June 13, 2010 Maybe some entrepreneurial skills are required? There are just so many markets in health food, flowers, organic now. This skill set is there on the small scale, but unless the govt undertakes to improve the transport infrastructure to reduce the time it takes to bring produce to market it will never happen. These markets are either international or based in major cities like Bombay and Calcutta and Delhi. All this palava about Raja Sansi airport opening/closing/expanding/airlines being over-taxed on landing charges; and having to share the GT road with the cow and the tractor and the ricksha-wala: this will always hamper the bottom line for sucess 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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