Nitish requests Pawar to ensure movement of wheat

Patna, Jun 7 (UNI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today requested Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to ensure movement of wheat from FCI godowns in the state which had procured surplus wheat.

In his letter to Mr Pawar, Mr Kumar said here the state has achieved new milestones in the procurement of wheat this year as it has already procured 3.06 lakh MT of wheat till date.

He said FCI here was facing paucity of godowns available with it and in view of the space crunch the procurement efforts of the state government on minimum support price would be affected.

He urged Mr Pawar to take immediate steps and direct the concerned officials to urgently ensure movement of at least 1.5 lakh MT of wheat outside the state to make space in the godowns for further procurement.

Mr Kumar said the step would on one hand solve storage crisis while on the other it would benefit the farmers as the state government has financially supported the procurement efforts by giving an additional bonus of Rs 25 on per quintal of wheat procured from May 14.

The steps initiated by the state government has accelerated the pace of procurement resulting in the massive procurement effort of 3.06 lakh MT of wheat.

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