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Wheat procurement begins in south Punjab, 900MT purchased in Mansa
Bathinda district mandi officer Preet Kanwar Singh Brar said 2,700 coupons were issued to arhtiyas to enable farmers to sell their produce on Sunday
Sardulgarh town of Mansa was the only place in south Punjab where the wheat purchase started on the first day of procurement on Saturday. Officials said 900 metric tonne (MT) of grain was purchased by two state agencies.
Mandi officer of Mansa Rajnish Goel said 500 MT was bought by Pungrain while Markfed bought another 400 MT.
“Total 7,025 MT wheat arrived in different mandis across the district. Procurement began after the foodgrain stock was checked to be within the prescribed parameters of moisture content,” he said.
Purchase centres across the southern districts witnessed a negligible arrival of wheat on the first day. Officials say arrival of wheat is expected to pick up after April 15.
Mandis wore a deserted look as most of the arhtiyas kept their shops shut till afternoon.
Officials attributed the slow arrival to delayed harvesting due to rain and thunderstorm on Tuesday. “Farmers are waiting for another three-four days to start harvesting as fields are wet after a thunderstorm hit the region early this week,” said Gurpreet Kang, Fazilka food and civil supplies controller.
Except, Mansa, no other district in the region, including Bathinda, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Moga saw wheat procurement. In Bathinda, 5,560 metric tonne wheat arrived in purchase across the district. In the absence of any worker or arhtiyas, no grain was purchased by any agency.
Bathinda district mandi officer Preet Kanwar Singh Brar said 2,700 coupons were issued to arhtiyas to enable farmers to sell their produce on Sunday.
Besides 183 traditional mandis, the Bathinda district administration has notified 132 other sites for staggered procurement in view of the pandemic.
“We have made an elaborated plan for the smooth purchase at 315 centres where Covid-19 guidelines will be followed,” said Brar.
No purchase in Doaba
JALANDHAR: Even as the wheat procurement operations started in some parts of the state after arhtiyas called off their strike on Saturday afternoon, no purchase was made in the Doaba region on Day 1.
Jalandhar district mandi officer, Mukesh Kailey said 260 metric tonnes of wheat arrived in the various grain markets of the district, including Jalandhar, Nakodar, Phillaur, Goraya and Malsian, but no agency purchased the grain. A senior official of mandi board said that the procurement will pick up pace by Monday.
In Kapurthala district, a few farmers brought their crop in the Bholath grain market while no crop arrived in Sultanpur Lodhi and Kapurthala grain market. The situation was same in Hoshiarpur and SBS nagar districts.
Wheat starts arriving in Ludhiana mandis
Farmers started bringing their rabi produce to nine mandis of the district, including Khanna, Machhiwara, Raikot, Jagraon, Mullapur and Sahnewal. Harbansh Singh Rosha, president of the Arhtiyas Association Khanna said food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu will inaugurate the procurement process in Khanna mandi, the largest grain market in Asia, on Monday.
