The Hindu : New Delhi News : Centre bails out Punjab

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Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Centre bails out Punjab

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, SEPT. 21. The Central Government has bailed out the Punjab Government by converting its previous Cash Credit Limit (CCL) worth Rs 4,500 crores into a medium term soft loan. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank has sanctioned another limit for procurement of paddy in the current season.

This was disclosed in an official release, which gave details about the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, reviewing arrangements made by the departments of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs as well as the government's procuring agencies. He said that the State was all set to carry out procurement operation for paddy harvest in an efficacious manner.

Referring to the CCL, Capt. Singh said that the Reserve Bank of India had sanctioned Rs.6657.20 crores for the procurement of paddy and the first instalment of Rs.1891 crores had been received. The Chief Minister thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Central Government for an early sanction of CCL as also for converting previous gaps in CCL into medium term loan of Rs.4500 crores. The State Government would now be required to repay this amount within 10 years after due reconciliation of stocks.

Addressing a high level meeting of Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and heads of the procuring agencies, Capt. Singh said that his Government had managed five successful procurements. He pointed out that the State was expecting bumper paddy crop of 135 lakh Metric Tonnes (MT) during the current year out of which marketable surplus was likely to be 128 lakh MT.

As per the records available with Director Agriculture, the paddy had been sown in 25.30 lakh hectares during the present kharif season against 26.14 lakh hectares during the previous year.

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