In a major relief to the farmers of the state, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today gave his nod for allowing the transplantation of the non-basmati variety of Paddy from June 10 instead of June 15 and asked the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to make necessary arrangements for supplying requisite Power for sowing the crop from June 10. Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said that the state government had earlier decided to transplant the Paddy from June 15 during the current season. However as the Model Code of Conduct for the General elections 2014 was in effect till May 20 so the notification in this regard could not be issued.
After the issuance of notification in this regard various farmers organizations had met the Chief Minister and apprised him that the peasantry was facing a lot of problems due to this decision of the state government as they have already started the process of transplanting the Paddy. They had also apprised Mr. Badal that the woes of farmers would accentuate further if late transplantation of the Paddy crop was done. Acceding to the demand of the farmers, the Chief Minister had directed the Agriculture department to allow the sowing of Paddy crop from June 10 onwards. Mr. Badal has also asked the PSPCL to make necessary arrangements for supplying Power required for sowing the crop from June 10, so that farmers do not face any sort of problem.However the spokesperson further said that the transplantation of the non-basmati variety of paddy would commence from June 15 from the next crop season across the state.