Maintaining that all preparations for paddy procurement season, beginning October 1, were duly in place, Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Monday appealed to the farmers to bring “dry and within specifications paddy” to mandis to compliment state’s efforts in ensuing hassle-free experience for farmers. Reiterating the State Government’s commitment to procure each and every grain from farmers in seamless manner, Ashu said that all arrangements had been made for seamless procurement of paddy to ensure farmers do not face any hardship. To ensure smooth procurement, a total of 1,734 purchase centers have been allotted amongst the procuring agencies, he added.
Referring to recently released Paddy Policy, Ashu said that several technological interventions had been introduced to bring about transparency and arrest malpractices. “Linkages of mandis with mills this season had been done using GPS maping to avoid extra transportation cost,” he added.
Ashu said that the requisite Cash Credit Limit (CCL) would be arranged well in time in the coming week before the commencement of paddy arrival.
He said that as per Agriculture Department report, area under cultivation was 29.20 lakh hectares and State was expecting procurement of 165 lakh metric tonnes besides arrangement of tarpaulins, gunny bags, stock and storage space finalized.
“Arrangements for procurement of 170 LMT paddy has been finalized,” he said adding that strict instructions had also been issued to ensure timely payment to farmers. A new portal has also been launched for online miller registration and allotment, Ashu said adding that applications and payments for release order of paddy would be taken online from this season.
Grievance redressal Committee have been set up in each mandis and uninterupted power supply shall be ensured, he added.