IEP Chandigarh, October 29
The paddy arrivals in the mandies of the State have reached their peak. In merely four weeks of onset of procurement season, more than 105 LMT paddy has arrived in the mandies till today out of which nearly 104 LMT paddy has already been procured. Disclosing this today, Lal Chand Kataruchak, Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister, stated that timely purchase, payment and lifting is going on in each mandi where any farmer has brought his produce from the day one of the procurement. All arrangements of Bardana, Mandi labour and transportation are adequate across the state, he said. He also said that he has toured mandies of almost every district in the last four weeks and all stakeholders have expressed satisfaction over the procurement arrangements during his visits.
As of now, the State mandies are witnessing arrivals of nearly 7.5 Lakh MT of paddy in a day, and almost all paddy arriving in a day gets purchased by the end of that day itself. As on today, less than one lakh MT has remained unpurchased across the State, which he said, clearly shows that in many Mandis paddy is being cleaned and purchased on the date of arrival itself.
Giving details of the MSP payments he said that nearly Rs.15400 crore had already been released directly into the accounts of the farmers and another Rs.2000 crore has been approved for payment and would be released once the Banks open on Monday. He reaffirmed the commitment of the State Government to purchase every single grain produced with the sweat and toil of the farmer.
Principal Secretary Food and Civil Supplies, Rahul Bhandari said that he was personally keeping a close eye on the procurement activities and all the Managing Directors of the Procurement Agencies had been touring the Mandis from the onset of procurement onwards.
