Wheat procurement crosses 92 lakh tonnes in Punjab

Chandigarh, May 4 (UNI) Wheat procurement in Punjab has crossed the 92 lakh tonne mark and the state's contribution to the central pool has touched 87.65 lakh tonne.

According to an official spokesman, the six government agencies inthe state and private millers had procured 92.12 lakh tonnes of wheat till yesterday evening. While 95.1 per cent of the total procured wheat is for the central pool, the remaining 2,11,522 tonnes (2.3 per cent) would be for the state pool.

The private millers had so far lifted 2,35,509 tonnes, which was 2.6 per cent of the total procurement.

PUNGRAIN had procured 16,32,990 tonnes (18.6 per cent) while MARKFED procured 20,73,669 tonnes (23.7 per cent). PUNSUP procured 20,00,372 tonnes (22.8 per cent), PSWC procured 11,08,661 tonnes (12.6 per cent) and PAIC was able to procure 10,04,286 tonnes (11.5 per cent) of wheat for the central pool. The Central Government agency FCI had been able to procure 9,45,693 tonnes (10.8 per cent) for the central pool.

The spokesman said in, addition MARKFED procured 67,932 tonnes, PUNSUP procured 75,408 tonnes and PAIC procured 41,460 tonnes for the state pool.

Ferozepur district with 10,49,084 tonnes was leading in procurement operations followed by Sangrur district with 9,19,793 tonnes and Ludhiana district with 8,07,235 tonnes.

The Punjab Government has made a payment of more than Rs 8500 crore to the farmers of the state for wheat procured upto May 2. It has already set aside Rs 11,176 crore for the wheat procurement season to ensure hassle free payment to the farmers.

The State Government has set up over 1615 procurement centres and activated its machinery to ensure smooth procurement of wheat.

UNI HS GL RN1452