The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak today said that the Wheat procurement operations are going on in full steam across the State and the farmers are getting payments within 24 hours of the produce being procured. The Punjab Government led by the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann is fully committed to ensure a successful and farmer friendly procurement season.
This is the fourth consecutive season where the Punjab Government has successfully ensured the procurement as well as the payments simultaneously. Taking stock of the procurement arrangements at Jhabal dana Mandi, the Minister also interacted with the farmers, arhtiyas and labourers.
Till date, 80 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of Wheat has arrived in the mandis out of which 76 LMT has been procured which is approximately 96 percent. Appreciating the pro - farmer thinking of the Punjab Government to ensure top notch facilities to the farmers during Wheat and Paddy seasons, the Minister said that for the continuous 4 years, the procurement seasons have been fairly successful.
Whereas during the previous regimes the farmers had to contend with shortage of bardana, lifting & payment issues but now they are getting the payments for produce procured within 24 hours. The lifting is also proceeding smoothly. Divulging more, Mr. Kataruchak said that Punjab is the food bowl of the country and to successfully carry out procurement at such a massive scale is a matter of pride for the State.
The Minister also interacted with the farmers as well as the labourers and took stock of the arrangements made by the concerned authorities regarding the mechanism put in place for the ease of all the stakeholders. Among others present on the occasion included the Chairman, District Planning Committee Gurvinder Singh Behalwar, SDM Tarntaran Dr. Karanvir Singh, Deputy Director Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department Rajnish Kumari, DFSC Jasjit Kaur, and District Mandi Officer Harjot Singh.