The tragic death (by suicide) of Punjab official Gagandeep Singh Randhawa and the arrest of AAP minister Laljit Singh Bhullar (since resigned) throws spotlight on the ₹2,000-crore parasitic economy built on the back of govt-funded storage and procurement.
Bhullar said to have pressured official Randhawa to bend FCI norms to award a massive warehouse tender to his own father.
Punjab’s storage capacity is a massive 173 Lakh MT. With rent averaging ₹100/MT, this is a ₹2,076 crore annual jackpot to grab.
This case illustrates why farm laws faced such fierce, complex resistance in Punjab, as it exposes middleman-politician nexus that has build an extractive infrastructure.
By maintaining a state monopoly over buying and storing, the political class effectively controls the grain warehouses. A parasitic "Arhtiya-Politician Loop" ( Bhullar’s father serving as both a retired bank employee and a commission agent)
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