Over 3,100 tonnes wheat procured in Punjab on day 1

Over 3,100 metric tonnes of wheat was procured on the first day of procurement in Punjab on Wednesday, an official statement said.

The procurement agencies had purchased 18,309 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat on the corresponding day of last year.

Different procurement agencies, including Food Corporation of India, procured wheat from the grain markets across the state.

Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said the state government has set up 1,867 procurement centres and 1,824 mandi yards for the purchase of crop.

The state government is expecting to procure 135 lakh metric tonnes of wheat in the current rabi marketing season. The Centre has fixed Rs 1,925 per quintal as minimum support price for wheat.

Though the state authorities said they had made all arrangements for the smooth procurement of crop, farmers at many places were under the impression that there was a ceiling of bringing 50 quintals of crop per farmer.

However, officials made it clear that a farmer may bring as much crop as he wants to the grain market but he will be issued separate passes for each tractor trolley.

Around 6,200 passes were issued for the first day of procurement and 18,000 passes will be issued for Thursday and 42,000 for Friday, officials said.

The state government has decided to issue about 27 lakh passes to wheat growers for bringing their crop to the grain markets for procurement, as part of the measures to prevent overcrowding in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The market committee is issuing passes to arthiyas (commission agents) who in turn give them to farmers for bringing their crop to mandis.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Mandi Board issued directions to all the secretaries of the Market Committees across the state to initiate strict action against any person found causing hindrance in the procurement operations.

The directions came after a section of arthiyas had threatened to boycott wheat procurement.

Ravi Bhagat, Secretary, Mandi Board said it has come to their notice that a certain section of arthiyas had threatened to boycott the procurement operations during rabi marketing season 2020-21, which would not be tolerated at any cost.

He further pointed out that the Mandi Board had already issued necessary directions to cancel the licences of all such erring arthiyas and warned them of further action under the strict Disaster Management Act, 2005.

In order to ensure that farmers do not face any harassment, Bhagat further directed immediate cancellation of all farmers' passes issued to those arthiyas threatening to go on strike and re-issuance of an equivalent number of passes to other arhtiyas operating in the same mandi.

Bhagat also said the crop arrivals were slow and in some mandis, there was no wheat arrival.