Wheat procurement extended till June 30

New Delhi, May 29 (UNI) The Centre has extended the wheat procurment period ending on May 31 to June 30 this year facilitating the farmers to get incentive bonus of Rs 100 per quintal on wheat over and above its Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 750 per quintal for one more month.

The decision was taken by the Union Government after Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's meeting with Food Minister Sharad Yadav at latter's residence last evening.

Mr Badal urged Mr Pawar that the arrival of wheat in mandis (markets) was delayed due to late maturity of the crop and wide spread manual harvesting.

The Chief Minister thanked Mr Pawar describing the decision as 'farmer-friendly' which would help preventing the exploitation of farmers by the traders.

Punjab usually contributing 90 to 100 lakh tonnes of wheat to the Central Pool for past several years, has procured only 65 lakh tonnes for the Central kitty during the current season, virtually came to end by May 15.

The entire procurement in the country by Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal procurement agency, stood at 105 lakh tonnes last week.

Meanwhile, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal told the mediapersons that the state farmers had held back around 20 lakh tonnes of wheat anticipating there would be rise in prices.

At the same time, the Finance Minister said why the farmers should part with their produce at Rs 850 per quintal (MSP plus bonus) while open market rate hovered around Rs 1,000 a quintal and the country had imported wheat at Rs 1100 per quintal a few months ago.

"The MSP for wheat, rice and other agricultural commodities should be linked to the price index and farmers should not be made to subsidise the ration for the consumers", Mr Manpreet Singh Badal added.

UNI