CM refuses to advance paddy transplant date

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday ruled out any change in the date of transplantation of paddy in the state from June 20 to June 1 despite persistent demand by the Opposition. He, however, agreed to convene an all-party meeting on the issue.

Aam Aadmi Party legislator Kultar Singh Sandhwan raised the demand during question hour today. Akali MLA Harinderpal Singh Chandumajra supported the demand along with some other Opposition party MLAs.

However, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh pointed out that earlier long-duration varieties of paddy were sown in Punjab but new short to medium duration varieties of paddy, introduced by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), were taking fewer days to mature and require lesser irrigation. These new paddy varieties like PR 126, PR 124, PR 127, PR 121 and PR 122 were now being sown in 83 per cent of the area and were maturing, on an average, in 110 days, he said, adding that marketing of these varieties was not a problem either.

The transplantation date had been advanced to June 13 this year only on experimental basis and there was no proposal under his government’s consideration for permanently altering the date of transplantation of paddy, Capt Amarinder told the House in response to a question.

Captain Amarinder pointed out that Punjab was facing an acute shortage of water. Even the Eradi Commission had assessed the river water level at 17.1 MAF at the time of its evaluation. The level had since gone down further to 13 MAF, he pointed out, adding that the problem had been aggravated as a result of the melting of glaciers, coupled with the greenhouse effect.

Expressing concern over the depleting groundwater level, the Chief Minister cited the Dynamic Ground Water Estimation Report-2017 report, published in 2019, to observe that the number of blocks falling under over-exploited category (where groundwater abstraction exceeds recharge) stood at 109 out of the 138 study blocks in the state. The groundwater level is depleting in about 85 per cent of the state and the average yearly rate of fall of water level is about 50 cm per year, he added.

Two Bills passed

The Assembly passed two Bills — The Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Punjab Sports University Bill, 2019 and The Punjab Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2019.