Badal meets PM to end controvery over paddy procurement

Badal said his government was expecting arrival of about 120 lac metric tonnes of paddy in mandis from sept 1 and is would expect the FCI to lift atleast 40 per cent of the produce. He said the FCI’s reluctance to procure the paddy was a cause of grave concern for Punjab, which is primarily an agricultural-economy state.

Badal almo met union minister for Consumer affairs and Public distribution minister Shanta Kumar and asked him to intervene in the matter. He asked the FCI to start the procurement by Sept 25 although, he said, traiditonally it should have commenced from september 1.

Punjab government has also objected to a ministerial committee report which proposed fresh standards for foordgrains to be procured. The stardards pertain to moisture content and broken grains. Badal said the decision of the Consumer affairs and Public distribution ministry committee on foodgrain standsrds was unilateral and the committee had totally ignored the view point of Punjab and other state governments. Badal asked the centre to take a pragmatic stand on the issue in view of the climatic conditions prevalant in the country.

Badal accused the FCi of adopting a discriminatory attitude towards Punjab famers on the issue of paddy procurement.copming down heavily on the FCI’s operations in the state, Badal said the corporation had not been alloting priority in allocation of railway racks to the state procurement agencies, which wanted to move the grains to the markets.“the FCI, which is in a decision-making position, has evacuated its fresh wheat while even three years old wheat of the state procurement agencies is rotting for want of priority in allocation of railway racks”, Badal said.

Badal said the failure of centre to move Punjab’s wheat stocks had created a severe financial strain on the monetary resources of Punjab since bulk of finances remained blocked in the wheat procurement.He further blames FCI “scuttling the entire wheat movement of the state account in the last three months by giving priority to its own stocks”.