90 lakh MT of wheat procured, says official

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, April 25

The Director, Food and Civil Supplies Anindita Mitra on Wednesday said the Punjab Government was fully committed to ensuring the successful completion of wheat season and farmers would not have to face any problem with regard to the payments, lifting and gunny bags (Bardana) during the procurement season.

The Director was taking stock of the procurement arrangements in the grain markets (mandis) of Hoshiarpur and Garhshankar.

She said various procurement agencies had procured 89,64,198 metric tonnes of wheat in the mandis of the state. Out of the procured wheat, Pungrain had procured 20,48,629 of metric tonne, Markfed 20,61,460 of metric tonne, Punsup 16,66,522 of metric tonne, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation 12,69,373 of metric tonne whereas the traders have in private purchased 27,767 metric tonnes of wheat.

The Director said payments to the tune of Rs 1479.97 crore had been made in Punjab whereas the commission agents (arhtiyas) paid Rs 10,856.66 crore for the procured wheat in Punjab till date. The Director said the state government had ensured transparency in the transportation tender process attempting to make for the loss incurred by the state in transportation.

She said wherever the procurement was being done in timely manner, payments were being ensured within 48 hours. Apart from this, gunny bags would be made available and lifting is also being ensured in timely manner, she added.

Mitra also elaborated that the state government had made adequate arrangements for storage of grains and no difficulty would be allowed to arise in this regard. She also added that direct lifting to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in some mandis through ‘Specials’ is also being undertaken so as to make sure that there is no space constraint in the mandis.

She said the arrangements concerning wheat procurement made by the government were satisfactory and the government had instructed various officers to ensure that there were no hassles regarding procurement.

Expressing satisfaction at the purchase of 1,17,893 metric tonnes of wheat in mandis of the Hoshiarpur District till Tuesday late evening out of total 1,18,970 metric tonne arrival, the Director instructed the agencies concerned to speed up the lifting.

She said Rs 130 crore payments (100 per cent) had been made to the commission agents whereas 70 per cent lifting been ensured.

ADC (General) Anupam Kaler, SDM Hoshiarpur Jitendra Jorwal, SDM Garhshankar Hardeep Singh Dhaliwal, DFSC Rajnish Kaur, District Mandi Officer Raj Kumar and officers and commission agents of the various procurement agencies were also present on the occasion.