Govt agencies procure over 82 per cent paddy in Punjab

Chandigarh, Oct 30: Government agencies have procured more than 82 per cent of the total procurement of paddy in Punjab till Oct 29.

According to an official spokesman, out of the total procurement of 110.78 lakh tonnes of paddy in all the procurement centres of the state, the government agencies had procured 90.96 lakh tonnes of paddy (82.1 per cent) so date whereas private millers had lifted 19.81 lakh tonnes (17.9 per cent) of paddy.

Pungrain had procured 23.02 lakh tonnes (25.3 per cent) whereas Markfed procured 21.55 lakh tonnes (23.7 per cent). Punsup procured 23.10 lakh tonnes (25.4 per cent), PSWC procured 12.23 lakh tonnes (13.4 per cent) whereas PAIC was able to procure 9.88 lakh tonnes (10.9 per cent) of paddy. However, the Central government agency FCI had been able to procure just 1.16 lakh tonnes (1.3 per cent).

The spokesman said that Ludhiana district with 14.43 lakh tonnes of procurement was leading in procurement operations whereas Sangrur district with 13.08 lakh tonnes of procurement was at second slot and Patiala district with 11.74 lakh tonnes of procurement ranked at third position.

He added that the farmers had been paid Rs 5,508.01 crore for paddy procured by government agencies. Different government agencies had been allocated Rs 6,525.15 crores to ensure smooth procurement.

UNI