Govt agencies commence paddy procurement in Punjab

Chandigarh, Sep 25 (UNI) Paddy procurement has commenced in Punjab with the five state government agencies alongwith the Food Corporation of India (FCI) entering the grain markets in this border state.

The state is expecting a bumper paddy crop of 136.75 lakh metric tonnes this year, out of which the approximate marketable surplus would be 130 lakh MT. The state government alongwith FCI would procure about 109 lakh MT coming to the grain markets while the rest 21 lakh MT would be procured by the private traders.

On the request of the Punjab and Haryana governments, the Union government had advanced the procurement date to September 15 from October one. This was done as the two states had contended that paddy had started arriving in the markets from the begining of this month.

For the procurement the state government has set up 1504 purchase centres as against 1492 centres last year.Besides FCI, the five state agencies that would procure the paddy are-- Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) and Punjab Agro Food Corporation (PAFC).

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today reviewed the arrangements for the paddy procurement with officials of the procurement agencies, deputy commissioners and other senior officials here. The Chief Minister directed all the deputy commissioners and the heads of the procurement agencies to undertake the procurement as per their allotted share.

The Minimum Support Price (MSP) of common paddy has been fixed at Rs 580 per quintal and Rs 610 per quintal for grade 'A' varieties of paddy along with incentive bonus of Rs 40 per quintal.

The Chief Minister also asked the Deputy Commissioners to launch an awareness programme amongst the farmers, combine owners and arhtias to ensure the procurement of clean and dry paddy as per the prescribed norms.

He said the government would not tolerate any harassment of farmers either at the hands of the officials of the procuring agencies or commission agents.

He asserted that the farmers would get their due payments within the stipulated time.

Principal Secretary Food and Supplies Tejinder Kaur disclosed at the meeting that a proposal for sanctioning Rs 7302.12 crore had been sent to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the procurement of paddy. A sum of Rs 6280.50 crore had been sanctioned for the month of October to the state government.

Others who attended the meeting included Financial Commissioner Development G S Cheema and Director Food and Supplies Jagpal Singh Sandhu.

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