Five lakh gunny bags of wheat procured by various purchase agencies are lying dumped in the grain market of Ambala city, which is causing inconvenience to farmers and the grain dealers. The grain market sealers associations are protesting against the failure of the district administration, even then, no proper arrangements of lifting the produce has been made so far. Ambala city is the biggest grain market of the district, where besides Ambala, the farmers of near by Punjab area also bring their produce. At present, there is no place in the grain market where the farmers could keep their produce for procurement. The farmers have been unloading their produce on the roadside and on the green belt of HUDA sector as most of the space of the grain market is occupied by wheat-filled gunny bags. The heaps of gunny bags can be seen everywhere in the market. The grain dealers, who were also facing the shortage of gunny bags, had blocked the Ambala-Hissar road close to the grain market two days back. The SDM had assured them that lifting of wheat would begin at a war-footing level. DC Mohammad Shayin had also visited the grain market yesterday but the heaps of the wheat were still lying around. The lifting process is so slow that hardly 25 per cent of the arrived produce was lifted. Anil Aggarwal, president of new grain market dealer association, said the grain dealers as well as the farmers had been facing great problem since the arrival of wheat in the market. He said they had taken up the issue with the secretary of the market committee and the administration, but no sincere efforts were made to solve their difficulty. Shayin said the problem of lifting would be solved soon as he had strictly directed the contractors to lift the procurement at the earliest. He said the district administration was monitoring the situation everyday so that the farmers might not face any problem, while selling their produce. JIND: The process of arrival and procurement of wheat in the mandis of the district has reached its peak and is likely to continue till the end of this month. The wheat procurement this season has been better and has touched 3.85 lakh metric tonnes (MT) so far. The topper is the mandi at Safidon, where about 48,898 MT of wheat has arrived so far. The total procurement has also reached the figure of 3.60 lakh MT, which is reported to be at least 20 percent higher than that of last year. According to the details made available, the production of wheat crop has been handsome this season despite the rains and occurrence of hailstorms and fire incidents in the district. The minimum support price (MSP) of wheat this year has been Rs 1,000 per quintal, which is Rs 150 per quintal higher than that of last year. There had been a total of 34 purchase centres set by the government to facilitate the procurement of wheat. While Safidon has been leading the race of arrival and procurement this season, claimed Shyam Sunder, secretary of the market committee here. It is reported that the other agencies, which have been actively purchasing the wheat from the farmers include the Food Corporation Of India (FCI), the Department of Food Supply etc.