Badal meets Pawar to solve crisis caused by record foodgrain production

New Delhi, Mar 5 (ANI): As Punjab reaps a bumper crop and granaries overflow, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal met Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar pleading state's lack of resources to store the piling foodgrain stocks.

Stocks have accumulated over the years and there is no space to preserve wheat, for which procurement will commence in the first week of April.

Besides storage, there is immense shortage of jute bags, which are used for storing grains.

"The country's 60 per cent of grains requirement is provided by Punjab itself. We do production, then store it and transport it to other states and it all depends on the Central Government. So, we have requested that the previous stock of grains like paddy, rice and wheat needs to be moved out from the state or they'll be damaged.

Secondly, the issue of gunny bags which are short for packing those grains," Badal said after his meeting with Pawar here last evening.

Badal said that the state already has an overflowing stock of five million MT of wheat bought by the state procuring agencies last year.

Punjab is likely to exceed its target of contributing 11.7 million tons of wheat to the central pool this year. (ANI)