Over 54 lakh tonnes paddy procured in Punjab

Chandigarh, Oct 18 (UNI) Six government agencies and private millers have so far procured 54,80,998 tonnes of paddy in Punjab.

An official spokesman today said Pungrain procured 13,25,801 tonnes of paddy, which is 26.7 per cent of the total procurement, Markfed procured 11,59,503 tonnes, Punsup procured 11,44,784 tonnes, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation 6,58,857 tonnes while Punjab Agro procured 6,07,965 tonnes till yesterday.

The Central government agency FCI had procured only 64,575 tonnes of paddy, which is just 1.3 per cent of the total procurement.

The millers had procured 5,19,513 tonnes of paddy.

The mandis of Ferozepur division maintained their lead by recording 26,65,765 tonnes of paddy with maximum of 97,4,294 tonnes being recorded by Ferozepur district.

The mandis in Amritsar Division recorded 1678102 tonnes of paddy with Jalandhar recording maximum paddy by yesterday to the tune of 409211 tonnes. Procurement in the mandis of Ludhiana division was 11,37,131 with maximum procurement of 41,6,330 being recorded in Patiala district.

Six government agencies have paid over Rs 2982.81 crore for paddy procured by agencies during first 17 days of current Kharif marketing season.

The Punjab Food Supply had setup 1622 procurement centres throughout the state to ensure smooth procurement of paddy.

UNI PS PD NS1811