With rice sheller owners refusing to lift procured paddy,by next week,mandis across the state will be flooded with harvested grain. Khanna,which is said to be one of the largest grain markets in the state,is already witnessing such a scenario. Here,18,924 lakh metric tonne of paddy has arrived till date,among which,while 11,144 lakh metric tonne has been procured by government agencies,7160 metric tonne has been procured by private players. Thus,620 metric tonne lies unsold. The grain procured by government agencies is yet to be lifted. Similarly,at mandis of Muktsar,which have till date received 10,7067 metric tonne of paddy,48,237 metric tonne has been procured,only 23,640 metric tonne have been lifted. Official procurement of paddy had started in Punjab on October 1. This time,farmers did not sow the early maturing paddy variety. A large part of Punjab cultivates PUSA 44,which matures late. This means that a major chunk of harvested paddy will arrive in our mandis between October 15 and 30. Till date,we have received even less than 10 per cent of what we used to in previous years, said Yadwinder Singh,an arhtiya at Khanna Mandi. Meanwhile,a section of sheller owners,have refused to lift grain,alleging that governments policy towards storage of paddy was anti-millers. This section,led by Punjab Rice Millers Welfare Association president Rakesh Jain,will meet in Mullanpur on Thursday to chalk out their strategy. The governments policy for the year 2012-2013 is anti-millers. We are not being paid even a single penny for storing paddy in our shellers. Instead of giving us some benefits,we are being told that from now on,we will be responsible for missing paddy. Earlier,the Department of Food and Supplies inspector too had to ensure that the paddy stored in our mills was not pilfered, said Jain. He added: The government also says that if there is delay in stocking paddy in our shellers,we will have to pay an interest of that period. When we do not have any land,where should we store paddy? Moreover,the paddy which arriving in mandis this year is not of good quality. We have milled a part of it and found higher breakage and waste. The government will have to relax the norms or we will not pick up any paddy. Over 9.53 lakh tonnes paddy has been procured in Punjab in the ongoing kharif marketing season so far.
