M A I N   N E W S

Centre ready to pay Punjab Rs 10,451 cr for paddy purchase
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7
The Punjab Government today heaved a sigh of relief after the Centre approved the release of second installment worth Rs 10,451 crore of cash credit limit (CCL) to pay farmers in lieu of their paddy procured for the Central pool.

Official sources said Union Finance Ministry officials concerned handed over the sanction letter to state government officials around 8 pm today in New Delhi.

Punjab Food and Supplies Secretary DS Grewal told The Tribune on phone that the state government would further release Rs 3,100 crore tomorrow for payment to farmers. He said he had already instructed the officials concerned to ensure that the money was transferred to the maximum number of farmers tomorrow after completing necessary formalities.

Scores of Punjab farmers have been waiting for their dues for the past three weeks. Though more than 100 lakh tonne paddy has been procured for the Central pool till today, payment for only 68 per cent of the stock has been made to farmers. In fact, farmers have not been paid since October 20.

The state government had released the first installment of Rs 8,000 crore in the second week of October and with that money, procurement agencies had cleared the payment of paddy procured till October 19. The consortium of banks had sanctioned a CCL of Rs 22,000 crore to the state government for paddy procurement.

But, the Centre, after sanctioning the release of the first installment, had been sitting over the file submitted to it for its approval for the second installment. Senior Punjab officials led by Food and Supplies Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon had been camping in New Delhi for three days to get the payment released. They met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ram Bilas Paswan.

Farmers’ wait ends

* Punjab Food and Supplies Secretary DS Grewal says the state government will release Rs 3,100 crore on Saturday to pay farmers

* Farmers have been waiting for their dues for the past 3 weeks

* Though more than 100 lakh tonne paddy has been procured for the Central pool, payment for only 68 per cent of the stock has been made to farmers.