Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has directed for effective arrangements at wheat procurement centres in the State. He said that it should be kept in mind that farmers coming to procurement centres face no difficulty. Wheat, which has lost its shine due to hailstorm, should also be procured.
The Chief Minister was reviewing arrangements for wheat procurement on Thursday. Wheat procurement has begun in four divisions, Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal and Narmadapuram from March 25 and will begin in remaining divisions from April 6.
The Chief Minister will himself visit procurement centres and take stock of arrangements. The Chief Minister sought information about arrangements for wheat procurement. He said that sieves and moisture meters should be made available at procurement centres. If any farmer’s wheat is assessed to be procurement on less than procurement price of Rs1,450 per quintal, its sample should be taken and verified by Mandi Secretary.
Weighing should not be repeated at places where big weighing machines are installed. One telephone number should be fixed for receiving complaints regarding wheat procurement so that farmers can register
their complaints regarding procurement. Immediate action should be taken on such complaints. The meeting was informed that 18.74 lakh farmers have registered themselves for wheat procurement, which is 1.50 lakh more than last year. As many as 2,974 procurement centres have been set up. On the first day of procurement, March 25, 10,614 MT wheat was procured from 2,073 farmers.
The meeting was attended by Agriculture Production Commissioner RK Swai, Principal Secretary to CM Iqbal Singh Bains, Principal Secretary Agriculture Rajesh Rajora, Principal Secretary Revenue Arun Tiwari, Principal Secretary Cooperatives Ajit Kesari and officers of Civil Supplies Corporation and MARKFED.