30-member control room to coordinate wheat harvesting, procurement

The CM ordered the food and agriculture departments to immediately come out with standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the mandis and purchase centres

CHANDIGARH The Punjab government has set up a 30-member control room at the mandi board for coordination and providing logistic support during the upcoming wheat harvesting and marketing season amid the COVID-19 clampdown.

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The information was shared during a video conference on Tuesday in which chief minister Amarinder Singh reviewed the arrangements for the rabi operations with top officials from various departments, including food and civil supplies, agriculture, police, among others, according to an official release.

The CM ordered the food and agriculture departments to immediately come out with standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the mandis and purchase centres. He directed the departments to scale up the number of purchasing centres to 4,000, from the current 3,761, which is already double that of last year.

Amarinder also wrote to his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, seeking her personal intervention to revive manufacturing and loading at the jute mills in her state against the pending indents for gunny bales placed by the Punjab government.

The CM was informed that there was no shortage of labour as 14.2 lakh workers were available to join the operations.