The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak here today at Dana Mandi took stock of the procurement operations and said that the procurement of Wheat continues uninterruptedly in the mandis of the State and till now more than 24 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) produce out of 28 LMT arrival, has been procured.
Initiating the procurement of the produce of farmer Jaila hailing from village Basti, the Minister accompanied by MLA Jasvir Singh Raja Gill, said that robust arrangements have been made in the mandis regarding procurement to ensure the farmers encounter no difficulty in selling their crops.
As per the Minimum Support Price (MSP) fixed at Rs. 2585 Per Quintal, an amount of Rs. 647 Crore has been credited into the accounts of farmers. The State Government is fully committed to procure every single Grain produced by the farmers and as part of this commitment, payments are being made to the farmers within 48 hours of the procurement with lifting also picking up pace.
The Minister while directing the concerned officers of the procurement agencies to make sure that the farmers encounter no hassle in the mandis, divulged further that the necessary arrangements with regard to the Bardana, Labour and Transportation have been ensured in the mandis.
He also appealed to the farmers to desist from burning wheat stubble and instead go for managing the stubble in the fields itself through usage of the machinery made available by the Agriculture Department. Regarding making good the losses caused to the crops in the past few days due to the unseasonal rain, the Minister said that specifical girdawari has been ordered and the State Government would make good the loss suffered by the farmers.
The MLA Jasvir Singh Raja Gill said that the Punjab Government would ensure hassle free procurement and prompt lifting of the produce like previous year. He also said that the State Government led by the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has always catered to the interests of farmers and is ensuring timely payments after the procurement of Wheat.
He also gave instructions to the administrative officials to ensure timely procurement in the mandis. In Hoshiarpur, 78 mandis have been set up out of which 65 are permanent while the rest 13 are temporary. The District expects 316000 MT of Wheat arrival.
Among others present on the occasion included the SDM Lovepreet Singh, Chairman Market Committee Rajwinder Singh, Secretary Market Committee Harpreet Singh, Deputy Director Food supply Rajnish Kumari and the DFSC Preetkamal Sood.