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Paddy procurement begins

Govt. has set up 1504 purchase centres

Chandigarh: Paddy procurement has begun in Punjab with the five State Government agencies along with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) entering the grain markets in the State.

The State is expecting a bumper paddy crop of 136.75 lakh metric tonnes this year, out of which the approximate marketable surplus would be 130 lakh MT. The State Government along with the FCI would procure about 109 lakh MT coming to the grain markets while the rest of 21 lakh MT would be procured by the private traders.

On the request of the Punjab and Haryana Governments, the Union Government had advanced the procurement date to September 15 from October 1. This was done as the two States had contended that paddy had started arriving in the markets from the beginning of this month.

For the procurement the State Government has set up 1504 purchase centres as against 1492 centres last year. Besides the FCI, the five State agencies that would procure the paddy are Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) and Punjab Agro Food Corporation (PAFC).

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday reviewed the arrangements for paddy procurement with officials of the procurement agencies, deputy commissioners and other senior officials here. The Chief Minister directed all the deputy commissioners and the heads of the procurement agencies to undertake the procurement as per their allotted share.

The Minimum Support Price (MSP) of common paddy has been fixed at Rs 580 per quintal and Rs 610 per quintal for grade `A' varieties of paddy along with incentive bonus of Rs 40 per quintal.

. -- UNI

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