AMRITSAR, Oct 6 — A high-level Central team, sent by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today visited various grain markets of this border district to take samples of paddy, with a view to clearing the glut of the produce.

The Central team, which visited Goindwal, Harike and other grain markets of the state, comprised Mr K.M. Sihni, a senior IAS officer and Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Food, Mr V.B. Patnaik, Joint Commissioner Storage and Research, Government of India, Mr G.Vagralingam, Director of Food, Punjab, Mr Ashok Kumar, in charge of quality control, and Mr D.P. Reddy, Senior Regional Manager, FCI. The team will be staying at Ferozepore, it is learnt.

According to Mr Bhupinder Singh, District Food and Supplies Controller, the Central team took samples of the paddy from the Amritsar mandis.

It may be mentioned here that the Prime Minister directed the Central team to visit various mandis of Punjab on the personal request of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister. Mr Badal had reportedly complained to the Prime Minister tha the FCI had been refusing to procure sufficient quantity of paddy on the pretext that most of the produce was damaged. The FCI Chairman, Mr Bhure Lal, who visited some mandis in this border district yesterday, had declared that about 80 per cent of the paddy in mandis was below the specifications laid down by the Government of India, causing panic among all concerned.

Mr Badal had to approach the Prime Minister for speedy procurement of paddy as farmers have been resorting to traffic blockades and dharnas in protest against non-procurement of paddy.

SANGRUR: As part of thier continuing protests against the slow procurement of paddy and tough specifications with regard to purchase of paddy, the farmers today blocked traffic in different parts of the district.

The local police control room said the farmers blocked traffic near the bus stand at Bhawanigarh for about three hours and near the local grain market for more than one-and-a-half hours. They also blocked traffic at the local Barnala Kenchian for about half-an-hour to protest against the policies of the Central Government.

The Barnala police control room said the farmers today disrupted vehicular traffic by blocking the road at T-Point near Barnala. A large number of farmers also blocked traffic for about three hours at Mehal Kalan village near Barnala.

HOSHIARPUR: The Dasuya procurement centre is over-flowing with paddy.

Mr Apar Singh Ghuman, president of the Dasuya Vikas Manch, told this correspondent from Dasuya on telephone today that only about 20 per cent of the paddy was being purchased by government agencies for Rs 450 to Rs 480 per quintal against the fixed rate of Rs 540.

He alleged that farmers were being harassed by the representatives of government agencies. They generally rejected the paddy on filmsy ground.