Punjab Government has made online transactions of over Rs4,200 crore for the procured wheat in the State to date. Earlier on Friday, transactions over Rs2,612 crore were made to the commission agents.
“Total 80.26 lakh metric tonne of wheat has been procured in the State. The Government agencies has procured 79.04 lMT whereas the private traders procured 1.20 lMT of wheat till date,” said an official spokesperson of the government on Monday.
Giving details, spokesperson said that Pungrain has procured approximately 19.9 per cent, that is 15.94 lMT, Markfed recorded maximum of 16.46 lMT (20.5 per cent), Punsup procured 14.97 lMT (18.7 per cent), PSWC procured 11.54 lMT (14.4 per cent) PAIC procured 7.80 lMT (9.7 per cent) and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) procured 12.31 lMT which is about 15.5 per cent of the total wheat procured.
Referring to the payments made in Jalandhar district’s mandis for the wheat procured till date, the spokesperson said that total transactions worth Rs 278.08 has been made for more than 3.84 lMT of wheat procured in Jalandhar.
Giving agency-wise transactions, the spokesperson said that total amount of Rs47.86 crore was electronically transferred for the farmers’ produce procured by Pungrain.
Similarly, for procured wheat by Markfed amount worth Rs83.66 crore has been online transferred. Punsup given Rs47.65 crore whereas PSWC got Rs33.16 transferred. An amount of Rs21.32 crore was electronically transferred to the PAIC, he added.
The spokesperson also said that an amount of Rs44.43 crore was paid for the wheat procured.
Spokesperson also said that the state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adaish Partap Singh Kairon has already directed the field officers to keep a close watch on the procurement operations and follow a three-tier mechanism evolved by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for successful completion of this entire operation.
As per the three-tier mechanism, the officers would personally visit the grain markets under their jurisdiction for monitoring the progress of ongoing wheat procurement on the daily basis.
These officers have been asked to make all out efforts to ensure smooth and prompt procurement of Wheat on one hand so as to facilitate
the farmers so that the farmers do not have to face any hardship or inconvenience for the sale of their produce in the mandis.