Chandigarh, October 9: The Mandis in Punjab registered a total arrival of 16.70 lakh metric tonne paddy till Thursday evening.
Disclosing this here today Food and Civil Supplies Minister Mr. Bharat Bhushan said that Paddy procurement season 2020-21 commenced in state w.e.f. September 27 with four State procurement agencies viz Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup & PSsWC besides FCI were being procured the crop. He said that the A Grade Paddy was being procured at Minimum Support Price of Rs. 1,888/- per qtl for a grade. and as per specifications laid down by GoI.
The Minister said that State Government had made arrangements to procure estimated 170 LMT paddy for KMS 2020-21. Cash Credit limit amounting to Rs. 30,220.82 crore has been got sanctioned from the RBI for making payment of MSP to the farmers. A total of 16.70 LMT paddy has arrived till 08.10.2020 in the mandies of the State out of which 15.91 LMT paddy has been procured by Government agencies and 0.11 LMT has been procured by private traders. The lifting of procured crop from the Mandis is also going on smoothly and a total of 7.15 LMT paddy has already been lifted. All efforts are being made by all procurement agencies to ensure smooth procurement lifting & payment of paddy so that farmers do not have to face any problem in selling their produce.