IPE Chandigarh, October 29

Haryana Deputy Chief Minister said while reiterating the State Government’s commitment towards ensuring the welfare of the farmers, this time the procurement payment of the farmers has been directly transferred to their accounts within 48 hours only.

Last year, the government had set a target of making payment to the farmers within 72 hours but this time going a step ahead the said payments have been made in just 48 hours. So far a record 52 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured in the state and Rs 10,000 crore has been paid to the farmers,” shared, Sh. Dushyant Chautala while chairing a review meeting with the officers of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department held here today.

During the meeting, detailed discussions were held on the arrangements made for the purchase of procurement crops including Paddy and Bajra.

While directing the officers, Sh. Dushyant Chautala said that there should not be any delay in payment to the farmers and all the procurement-related payments should be paid within 48 hours.

He also directed that the payments of the farmers which have been delayed due to technical reasons should be informed through SMS and the pending payments should be cleared immediately after rectifying these technical flaws.

The Deputy Chief Minister further directed the officers to submit the report regarding the compensation of the crops affected by the heavy rains in the past, so that the farmers could get their compensation amount at the earliest.

Sh. Dushyant Chautala said that during this period 46 lakh MT of paddy was procured last year, whereas this time 52, 47,111 metric tonnes of paddy has been procured, which is about 13 percent more as compared to the last year. In Kurukshetra, Karnal and Kaithal districts, there has been more procurement than normal, he shared.

The Deputy Chief Minister also asked for a report related to the lifting of paddy in the Mandis. Notably, 210 Mandis have been opened for the purchase of paddy in the state.

81,000 MT Bajra procured at MSP

Sh. Dushyant Chautala said that so far 81,313.70 metric tonnes of Bajra have been procured by HAFED at the Minimum Support Price. The highest purchase of 22,223.90 metric tonnes was done in Bhiwani. Similarly, 15,710.45 MT has been procured in Jhajjar and 14,757 MT in Mahendragarh. So far, more than Rs 160 crore has been paid to the farmers.

He said that about 80000 metric tonnes of Bajra have been procured and sold by the farmers in the open market. Thus, around 1.61 lakh metric tonnes of Bajra have been procured so far.  The State Government has made a provision of Rs 280 crore to pay the farmers under the Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana on the Bajra sold in the open market, said the Deputy Chief Minister.

Groundnut procurement will begin on November 1.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that the procurement of groundnut would start in the state on November 1. For this, 7 Mandis have been set up in Fatehabad, Hisar and Sirsa districts. He said that groundnut would be procured at MSP and this time Rs 5850 per quintal MSP has been fixed for groundnut.

Commissioner and Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department Sh. Pankaj Agarwal, Director-General, Agriculture Department, Sh. Hardeep Singh, Deputy Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh. K.  Makarand Pandurang and other officers of FCI remained present in the meeting.