Bhopal, April 3 (NationPress) On Friday, Congress activists staged a significant protest against the repeated delays in the procurement process for wheat crops under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) in Madhya Pradesh. They claimed that these setbacks are compelling farmers to sell their crops to middlemen at significantly lower prices.

A considerable number of Youth Congress members, alongside local party leaders, obstructed a National Highway in Shujalpur, Shajapur district, resulting in extensive vehicle queues and causing major traffic delays for several hours.

As a result of the highway blockade, all vehicular movement—except for emergency services like ambulances—came to a halt from the morning until the afternoon.

Upon receiving reports about the situation, a robust police contingent arrived and dispersed the protesters using water cannons with support from the fire brigade.

Reports indicate that over twenty Congress workers, including some local MLAs, have been detained by the police.

All those detained were taken to a nearby police facility.

In the meantime, Jitu Patwari, President of the Madhya Pradesh Congress, stated that the state government failed to submit a request to the Centre for an adequate supply of gunny bags necessary for packaging wheat crops after procurement from farmers at government-run mandis.

"The state has proposed only 2.60 crore gunny bags against a necessary supply of nearly 10 crores to central authorities. This shortage underscores the negligence of the state government," Patwari remarked during a press briefing in Bhopal.

The Congress leader emphasized that it is essential for the state government to provide a timely requisition to the Centre that reflects its actual needs for gunny bags, as allocations are made based on these requests and subsequent advance payments.

"However, the government neither submitted a timely requisition for the necessary quantity nor made the required payments, leading to a critical shortage of gunny bags," Patwari accused.

The procurement process for wheat at MSP for the Rabi Marketing Year 2026–27 in Madhya Pradesh, initially set to start on April 1, has now been postponed to April 10 for Ujjain, Bhopal, Indore, and Narmadapuram divisions.

Similarly, the procurement in other divisions such as Rewa, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Shahdol, Chambal, and Sagar, which was supposed to begin on April 7, has been rescheduled to April 15.

This marks the second rescheduling by the state government.

Previously, procurement was set to kick off on March 16 before being postponed to April 1, as per an official statement released on March 31.

Notably, the wheat procurement in the state will occur at a rate of Rs 2,625 per quintal, which includes an additional bonus of Rs 40 per quintal for farmers.

Over 19,04,651 farmers have registered for wheat procurement at the MSP for the Rabi Marketing Season 2026–27.

Madhya Pradesh is recognized as one of the leading wheat-producing states in the nation.

This year, the state government has set the MSP at Rs 2,625 per quintal, which includes a bonus of Rs 40 per quintal.