Punjab sets up 3,700 mandis for procuring wheat amid Covid surge

Issuing of passes to farmers for bringing produce to grain markets starts today; food and civil supplies dept says measures in place to avoid crowding

The Punjab food and civil supplies department has set up 3,700 mandis for wheat procurement starting from April 10, saying all measures have been taken to ensure compliance with Covid-19 protocols to avoid any rush that can potentially leading to pandemic spread.

A farmer checking his wheat crop in a field in Amritsar district on Tuesday. (Sameer Sehgal /HT)

Of these, nearly half are permanent purchase centres while the rest have been created temporarily.

The Punjab Mandi Board, which along with the food and civil supplies department regulates procurement in the state through four agencies, will start issuing passes to farmers from Wednesday (April 7) for bringing their produce to the mandis. Passes to the farmers will be issued 72 hours in advance.

Nearly 130 lakh tonne wheat arrival is expected during the procurement season. The government on Monday received ₹21,658 crore from the Reserve Bank of India towards cash credit limit (CCL).

But the issue over direct bank transfer (DBT) remains unresolved as the central government is not willing to relent to Punjab’s demand to allow payment to farmers though arhtiyas (commission agents). The Centre has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) of the crop ₹1.975 per quintal, hiking it by ₹50 from the last year’s ₹1,925.

On Wednesday, the board is likely to issue 40,000 passes to the farmers to bring produce in a staggered manner.

On Tuesday, produce started arriving in the mandis at Patran, Patiala, Sangrur, Mansa, Fatehgarh Sahib besides some parts of Bathinda, Samrala and Khanna.

State food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu is expected to meet Union food and public distribution minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday to discuss the DBT issue seeking an extension of its implementation. Also, he will take up issues of rural development fund, movement of food stocks from the state godowns and release of pending incidentals.

BJP questions state govt’s sincerity

The BJP’s Punjab unit on Tuesday said the Amarinder Singh-led government in the state was playing “politics of deception” by scuttling Centre’s DBT scheme for state farmers.

State general secretary Subhash Sharma said at the insistence of farmer organisations the then state government had agreed to implement the scheme in 2013 and submitted an affidavit in the Punjab and Haryana High Court assuring that suitable provisions would be made in the agriculture marketing rules.

“The state government and the Centre signed pact in February to integrate an online payment system and agreed to make amendments to the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets (General) Rules for transfer of funds to farmers directly.