Lal Chand Kataruchak, Minister for Consumer and Civil Supplies Affairs, Forest and Wildlife today visited the grain market at district Barnala to oversee preparedness for ongoing paddy procurement season. Interacting with the media persons, he said that till Oct 10 12 lakh MT of paddy arrival recorded in state, 11.17 lakh MT procured and payments worth Rs 1400 cr have been directlty transferred into the accounts of farmers.
The state will easily meet its target of 182 lakh MT of paddy in state. He added that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab government was fully committed to ensure smooth procurement so that tha farmer does not face any problem in grain markets across state. He added that farmers are being paid within 10 hours to 24 hours of their produce being procured.
Answering a query on the stir of commission agents, shellers and labors he said that the state government has already written to center government stating that the demands of section on stir be accepted. 8.50 lakh farmers in state are selling their produce across 854 purchase centers in state. He appealed the farmers in state to not burn paddy stubble and instead use government subsidies on machineries for in-situ ane ex-situ management of paddy.
He said that the Bhagwant Mann led government is constantly working towards betterment of Punjab. The state has provided 37000 government jobs to youth while more are on anvil. Similarly, 600 units of free power has been a great help for the common man. The Minister visited grain market Barnala with Chairman Planning Board Gurdeep Singh Bath, Chairman Improvement Trust Ram Tirath Manna, Deputy Commissioner Punamdeep Kaur, SSP Sandeep Malik, DFSC Minkashi and others.
He took an over veiw of the arrangements made for paddy procurement this season and interacted with the farmers in grain market. Minister expressed satisfaction over the arrangements and appealed farmers to completely dry up their produce before bringing it to market.
Minister appreciates the man-made wetland coming up in Badbar
Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak appreciated the efforts of district administration Barnala for coming up with man-made wetland at village Badbar. The wetland is coming up in around 300 acres of land that will support the flora and fauna of the area. He added that more such efforts should be done to conserve the environment.
650 MT of paddy arrival in Barnala till Oct 10
In district Barnala, 650 MT arrival of paddy has been registered tll Oct 10. Of this, 577 MT has been procured and payments worth Rs 74 lacs have been transferred into accounts of the farmers.