CHANDIGARH: The wheat procurement in Punjab will begin on April 10, the state’s food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said. He said the state government has made arrangements in this regard, and procurement agencies and FCI would purchase the crop at Rs 1,975 per quintal in the current rabi season.
Ashu said the department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare expect the arrival of 130 lakh tonnes of wheat in the local markets (mandis). He said the state has increased the number of procurement centres from 1,872 to 4,000. The state has arranged 50 kg jute bags for the purpose of procuring the crop for the central pool during the 2020-21 rabi season, Ashu said.
In view of the Covid-19 situation, the state had postponed wheat procurement from April 1 to 10. The procurement process will continue till May 31, the minister said, adding that a token system has been established in the state’s local markets to enable the farmers to bring their produce in a systematic manner. Besides, standards will be maintained to ensure social distancing in the markets to curb Covid infections, and facemasks will be provided to labourers.
All deputy commissioners have been instructed to ensure proper arrangements in the markets, he said. District-level control rooms and grievance redressal committees have been set up to address any problems faced by farmers. The food and civil supplies department has also formed a control room at its headquarters in this regard.
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said the government has no option, but to transfer the minimum support price (MSP) amount for the procurement directly to the bank accounts of farmers in the current rabi season.
After a long discussion with Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal, Badal also said the Centre did not accept the state government’s demand for more time to implement a direct benefit transfer system in this regard. Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh had held talks with commission agents on Friday, in which the matter of payments towards wheat procurement using the new MSP payment system was discussed.
The Punjab government purchases wheat and rice at MSP on behalf of the central government under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
Currently, farmers are paid MSP amounts through agents, in contrast to other states, where the payment is made directly to the farmers’ bank accounts. After deliberations that went on for two hours and a half, Badal told reporters that the central government has asked Punjab to implement the DBT system.
“We had asked for more time because Punjab follows an agent system, but the central government did not agree. We tried a lot but they did not grant us more time,” Badal said. He also said that the state government has no option left but to start direct payment to bank accounts from the current season itself.
The direct payment system will be implemented soon, he said. Other than Badal, the state’s food minister, PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla and Punjab Mandi Board Chairman Lal Singh were also in attendance, besides Union Food and Agriculture Ministry officials.