Urged Centre to lift grain with high moisture: Mann

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said his government has urged the Centre to relax paddy procurement norms by asking state agencies to lift grain with moisture content as high as 20 per cent.

He said the request has been made so that flood and rain-hit farmers could be saved from further losses on account of crop damage.

The Chief Minister made the remarks during a surprise visit to a grain market in Bassi Pathana, where he inspected paddy procurement operations. This comes days after a central team completed its survey of rain and flood-hit areas witnessing drop in yield and reduced paddy quality.

Mann had last month met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, requesting for relaxation in procurement standards for flood-affected paddy.

During his visit to the grain market, Deputy Commissioner Sona Thind briefed him regarding the procurement process. Addressing the media, he said despite floods, bad weather and less produce, the state would contribute 170 lakh metric tonnes of paddy to the central food basket.

He said the Union Government should relax procurement norms as the state contributed 40 per cent of the total grain to the food basket.

‘Centre delayed flood relief’

Ropar: During a visit to a grain market here, the Chief Minister accused the Centre of meting out a step-motherly treatment to the state by delaying the flood relief of Rs 1,600 crore announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour of affected areas in Punjab last month. Over procurement operations, he said the government had notified 1,822 regular purchase centres. The CM said till now, 63.49 lakh metric tonnes of paddy had arrived in the mandis, of which 61.01 lakh metric tonnes had been procured. He said farmers had been paid Rs 13,073 crore for the procured grains.