E-Paper
Punjab govt to restart paddy procurement at 285 centres
The department of food supplies and consumer affairs on Wednesday decided to resume paddy procurement operations at 285 grain markets of the state from Thursday. The orders in this regard have been issued by the Punjab Mandi Board. The majority of the grain markets that will be restarted fall in the rural areas.
The department of food supplies and consumer affairs on Wednesday decided to resume paddy procurement operations at 285 grain markets of the state from Thursday.
The orders in this regard have been issued by the Punjab Mandi Board. The majority of the grain markets that will be restarted fall in the rural areas.
As per the orders, 55 markets are located in Sangrur; 42 in Muktsar Sahib; 41 in Patiala; 39 in Barnala; 39 in Moga; 31 in Faridkot; 23 in Jalandhar; three in Malerkotla; two each in Hoshiarpur, Mansa and Ludhiana; and one each in Fazilka and Ferozepur.
Earlier, Punjab Mandi Board officials had ordered to wind up the procurement operations in 1,559 grain markets and procurement centres.
HT had highlighted the issue of discontinuing the procurement operations despite the continuous inflow of paddy rice in mandis.
Confirming the restart of procurement centres, Uma Shankar, director, food and consumer affairs, said they had already received representations from various districts to reopen the grain markets. “We have received applications from various districts to restart operation at certain markets and centres since there is continuous paddy arrival due to late harvesting. The majority of the markets where we restarted operation are flood-affected areas. The resowing of paddy rice resulted in late paddy arrival (in mandis) than the usual time-window,” said Uma Shankar.
Officials of the department of food supplies and consumer affairs said they would reopen more markets in the coming days if they got more representation.
An official of the Punjab Mandi Board informed that around 2.62 lakh metric tonnes of paddy arrived in grain markets across Punjab on Wednesday. The arrival of produce was 27% higher than the paddy arrival on the corresponding day last year, said officials. So far, around 172.54 lakh metric tonnes of paddy have already arrived in the grain markets.
Continue procurement ops across state till Nov 20: Sukhbir
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal wrote on ‘X’: “We strongly condemn the AAP government’s decision of closing down 1,559 grain markets despite the fact crop was still coming in the mandis. So, I demand procurement operations should be continued across the state till November 20.”
Bajwa slams state govt for stopping procurement at 1,559 grain markets
Bajwa said that the AAP government’s decision is expected to increase the “exploitation of farmers in the hands of the commission agents (arthiyas)”. “The government must restart paddy procurement at all the mandis with immediate effect,” he said in a statement.
He said that due to several factors, including late paddy transplantation, early arrival of winters and untimely rainfall in some parts of the state, paddy harvesting was continuing. “With the closure of 1,559 grain markets, small and marginal farmers would be at the receiving end as they have limited resources and no space to store the paddy crop. They will be forced to sell their crop at a meagre price,” he said.
The LoP said that the Punjab Congress will always stand united with the protesting farmers to press the AAP government to cancel the FIRs registered against the farmers, “who were forced to indulge in burning the paddy residue”.
