E-Paper
Punjab seeks release of ₹1,760-crore pending rural development fund
Punjab government has asked Centre’s ministry of food, civil supplies and public distribution to permit 3% rural development fund against the total procurement which has been lowered to 2% in 2020.
The Punjab government has sought the release of ₹1,760 crore outstanding rural development fund (RDF) from the Centre for the past two procurements of food grains – paddy in 2021 and wheat in 2022.
Also, the government has asked the Centre’s ministry of food, civil supplies and public distribution to permit 3% RDF against the total procurement which has been lowered to 2% in 2020. The state officials are expected to take up the matter during Wednesday’s meeting with the Union agriculture minister.
Out of the pending accruals – ₹1,100 crore pertains to paddy of 2021 and the rest ₹650 crore to wheat procurement earlier this year. These calculations have been made on a 3% basis.
In 2021, the Centre stopped the release of RDF asking the state to amend the Punjab Rural Development Act specifying its usage in the development in the rural part of the state and on the procurement system.
“As required, we have amended the Act (Punjab Rural Development (Amendment) Act 2022 and a gazette notification has been issued. We have also submitted details of expenditure made by the state government in accordance with the principles laid by the (food and PDS) ministry,” said a communication sent by the state government to the Centre recently.
In January 2021, the Centre for the first time announced to curtail the RDF charged by the state government from 3% to 1% as a temporary measure for the upcoming wheat procurement, seeking information on the money being spent on infrastructure development so as to release the remaining amount.
The Centre then had asked the state that an appropriate decision on the release of the remaining portion of the RDF shall be taken once the requisite information is received. The then Congress party government remained indecisive on the matter of making amendments to the rural development Act, which was carried out by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on assuming charge in March this year.
The development in the rural sector is a cause of concern for the state government which is already facing an acute fund crunch with the RDF being a major revenue source.
Provisional cost sheet awaited for ongoing paddy procurement
Even though the paddy procurement in the current season began over a fortnight ago, the Centre is yet to issue a provisional cost sheet which mentions the accruals to be paid to the state on the procurement of paddy. These accruals include, RDF, mandi fee, “dami” to the arhtiyas and transportation and labour charges. As per practice, cost sheet is issued before the start of the procurement.
On Sunday, 3.6 lakh paddy arrived in the mandis of the state taking the total arrival so far to 29.43 lakh tonnes. Of the arrivals, 28.23 lakh tonnes have been procured out of which 28 lakh tonnes have been procured by state agencies and 28,800 tonnes by private millers. The state food department has cleared ₹3,949.87 crore and ₹2,338.64 crore has been disbursed to farmers.
