ACentral team would soon visit Punjab to assess damage to foodgrains, in terms of discolouration and moisture level, owing to the untimely rain and hailstorm.
Union Minister of State for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs (Independent Charge) KV Thomas agreed to send the Central team after Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon apprised him about the hardships faced by farmers for the procurement of grains due to inclement weather.
Kairon said that the Union Minister has assured that he would soon dispatch technical teams of the officers from his Ministry to take stock of the entire situation and “assess the extent of damage caused to paddy in terms of discolouration and moisture”.
During his meeting with Thomas, Kairon urged him to immediately announce the relaxations in existing procurement norms of paddy, which has been considerably discoloured due to recent rain and hailstorms across the State.
He informed that the Union Minister has promised that special teams would take a sympathetic view of the piquant situation to bail out the State’s peasantry by relaxing the prescribed norms of paddy procurement, immediately after the submission of report.
Kairon disclosed this while presiding over a high level meeting with the heads of the procurement agencies of the State on Monday.
later, he had threadbare deliberations with the managing directors of all the procurement agencies to ensure smooth, hassle-free and prompt procurement of paddy in the wake of damage caused to it due to recent unseasonal rains and hailstorm across the State, especially in ludhiana, Rupnagar and Fatehgarh Sahib districts.