Procurement: Govt clears transport bar

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 4

The state government has finally been able to rein in transporters for the ongoing wheat procurement season. Besides bringing down the rates at which the wheat will be transported from mandis, the government has also roped in rice millers and labour and construction societies to lift and transport the procured wheat.

It is for the first time that the government has capped the transport and cartage rate at 120 per cent of the scheduled rate. This will make the transport rates on a par with the charges given to the Food Corporation of India by the Centre. Since the rate of transport given in Punjab was much higher for the past several years, the state had been bearing the differential cost. Now, the government will save Rs 175 crore annually.

The Food and Civil Supplies Department on Wednesday finalised the tendering process of 340 transport clusters (of total 413), while rejecting the bids for 10 clusters. The re-bidding for these 10 clusters and 73 other where no bids were received, will be done on Thursday, said Anandita Misra, Director, Food and Supplies. She said most tenders allotted were over 40 per cent to 70 per cent of the scheduled rates.

While 100 per cent tenders had been finalised for the clusters in Amritsar, Barnala, Fazilka, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Muktsar, Mohali, Mansa, Pathankot, Rupnagar and SBS Nagar districts, the government was geared to ensure hassle-free procurement and lifting of wheat. In Mansa and Sangrur, the rice millers having their own trucks have been allotted contracts to transport wheat.

This is also for the first time that penalty clauses have been introduced in the contracts to be signed between labour contractors and the government to ensure that wages are paid to labourers through RTGS and provident fund given to them.