CHANDIGARH, Nov 1 — The Centre has accepted the demand of the Haryana Government to implement the relief package for paddy growers of the state with effect from September 21, as has been done in the case of Punjab.

Earlier the Centre had implemented the package for Haryana with effect from October 22, while for Punjab it was to be implemented from September 21.

The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, had requested the Centre to end this discrimination with the Haryana paddy growers.

The Centre’s acceptance of Mr Chautala’s request was conveyed to the Haryana Food and Supplies Department today.

A spokesman of the department said here today that under the new package, paddy would now be procured with damaged, discoloured, sprouted and weeviled grains up to the maximum limit of 8 per cent. Paddy conforming to the above specifications would be procured at the minimum support price of Rs 540 a quintal for the grade A variety and Rs 510 a quintal for the common variety.

The out-turn ratio for the custom milling of the paddy procured by the government agencies would be 64 per cent for raw and 65 per cent for parboiled rice.

The spokesman said till the end of last month 19.10 lakh tonnes of paddy had arrived in the mandis of the state, out of which millers had purchased 8.62 lakh tonnes and the government agencies 10.48 lakh tonnes. The percentage of leviable paddy purchased by the government agencies was 58 and that by millers 42 per cent.

Hafed had purchased 4.77 lakh tonnes (46 per cent), the Food Department 1.92 lakh tonnes (18 per cent), the Food Corporation of India 1.23 lakh tonnes (12 per cent), Haryana Agro-Industries 94,390 tonnes (9 per cent), the Haryana Warehousing Corporation 90,060 tonnes(9 per cent) and Confed 71,586 tonnes(7 per cent).