No plan to reduce foodgrain procurement, says MoS

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Chandigarh, February 8

The Centre does not plan to reduce foodgrain procurement from Punjab said Minister of State for Rural Development and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, in reply to a question posed by MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal during the Lok Sabha session.

The Minister stated, “There is a transparent and uniform policy for procurement of wheat and paddy. The state government’s agencies and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) purchase wheat and paddy within the stipulated period with prescribed fair average quality specification at the minimum support price (MSP) for the central pool.”

She said, “The estimates for procurement of wheat and paddy are finalised by the Centre in consultation with the state governments and the FCI, before the commencement of each marketing season. Increase or decrease of procurement estimate is decided on the basis of estimated production, marketable surplus and agricultural crop pattern.”

The question gains importance in the context that farm leaders questioned the reduction in the budget for procurement of foodgrain by the Centre this year.

Senior farm leader Balbir Singh Rajewal, said, “The government will have to procure foodgrain. The reserve stock of foodgrain with the state agencies in Punjab is just 10 lakh metric tonnes (MT), while the FCI has six lakh MT stock. In January 2022, the state had approximately 48 lakh MT wheat and in 2021 it was 52 lakh MT.”

Harsimrat said, “The Centre is not being fair to the farmers. The Central Government should renominate members of the MSP committee and include the farm leaders. The panel should honour the assurance given to the SKM by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 9, 2021.”