Chandigarh (PTI): The total paddy procurement by six government agencies and traders touched 128,27,753 tonnes in Punjab so far.

An official spokesman today said that PUNGRAIN procured 35,31,500 (29.8 per cent) tonnes of paddy whereas MARKFED procured 27,21,881 (23.0 per cent) tonnes of paddy.

PUNSUP procured 26,62,774 (22.5 per cent) tonnes of paddy whereas Punjab State Warehousing Corporation procured 14,68,928 (12.4 per cent) tonnes of paddy besides 12,43,027 (10.5 per cent) tonnes of paddy procured by Punjab Agro.

The Central Government Agency FCI procured only 2,03,817 (1.7 per cent)tonnes of paddy. The Millers procured 9,95,826 (7.8 per cent) tonnes of paddy by Monday.

Ludhiana district maintained its lead by procuring 15,95,076 tonnes the paddy followed by Sangrur (14,55,444 tonnes) and Ferozepur (12,04,502 tonnes).

The spokesman said that lifting of procured paddy from the mandis has started showing positive results with PUNGRAIN (97.6 per cent), MARKFED (94.1 per cent), PUNSUP (98.5 per cent), PSWC (98.2 per cent), PUNJAB AGRO (98.9 per cent) and FCI (99.3 per cent) showing substantial improvement.