Paddy procurement to end on Nov 30

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 20 

In wake of declining paddy arrivals in the mandis, the paddy procurement period has been modified, said Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Food and Civil Supplies Minister. He said earlier the paddy procurement was slated for October 1 to December 15, but it had now been altered and the procurement period would culminate on November 30. However, the milling period remained the same, he said, adding that the Centre has given due approval to the revision. 

He said a majority of the paddy arrivals had taken place, so much so that since the past few days there had been no paddy arrival in 477 out of 1,844 mandis in the state with meagre arrivals in others.

Paddy procurement to the tune of 160.91 lakh metric tonnes (MT) has been accomplished till November 19, with the share of government purchases being 159.80 LMT and that of private millers being 1,11,128 MT. As per the 72 hours norm, 100 per cent lifting of the purchased paddy has been achieved and payments worth Rs 26,946.94 crore have been transferred to the accounts of arthiyas/farmers by the government, he added.