Paddy lifting begins today, target of 7.60 LMT set

With the purchase of paddy by the government starting from October 1, Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala, Amit Kumar Panchal held a meeting with officials of the related departments at the District Administrative Complex today to review the procurement arrangements. He was accompanied by SSP Vatsala Gupta.

Panchal said the target of procuring 7.60 lakh metric tonne of paddy has been set during the season. He said 44 permanent and 30 temporary mandis had been set up in the district to carry out the procurement process in a smooth manner.

He said various government procurement agencies such as PUNSUP, the Warehousing Corp, Markfed and the FCI had been allotted mandis.

For farmers’ convenience, all arrangements, including sheds, drinking water, lights, toilets, etc had been made in the markets.

The Deputy Commissioner instructed the Food and Supply Department to ensure the payment of the purchased paddy to farmers within 48 hours. Apart from this, he also gave instructions to arrange adequate amount of crop transportation and labour so that the procurement process can run smoothly.

He appealed to all farmers that instead of setting fire to paddy straw, they should give preference to disposal of paddy straw in the fields with agricultural implements and also asked officials of the Department of Agriculture to sensitise farmers about not burning the stubble, regarding subsidised machines from the department, so that there may be a decline in the cases of stubble burning.

Apart from this, he also appealed farmers not to carry out harvesting in Kapurthala district through combines.