Will procure every grain of paddy, don't fall for rumours: Centre to Punjab farmers

Amid the ongoing paddy procurement challenges in Punjab, the Centre on Sunday told farmers of the state that it will procure “every single grain of paddy” and make timely payment to them, even as it asked farmers “not to fall for misinformation being spread about lack of space to store stocks.”

Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi said there was no crisis about procurement or storage of paddy and disinformation was being spread. “Misinformation and disinformation is being spread. We don't know who is behind this. We have enough space and more is being created. We will procure every single grain and are creating space. It is our responsibility to procure and create space and we will do it,” Joshi said in answer to a Tribune query on why the crisis came about in the first place when standard protocols are in place in the FCI to move grains in time so that enough space is available for the next procurement season.

Joshi said a high level committee had been formed under FCI CMD to ensure smooth movement of grains out of Punjab.

The Union Food Minister said as on date 5436999.89 metric tonne of paddy has arrived in the mandis of Punjab with Saturday’s arrival alone being 526896 metric tonne.

“Total procurement as on date is 4988402,49 metric tonne and yesterday we procured 534741.54 metric tonne. As of today we have 14 lakh metric tonne of space available which will rise to 16 LMT by November 1. As many as 3800 rice millers have registered to take paddy and 3250 have been given paddy. We expect to register 4500 rice millers,” said Joshi.

There are around 5500 rice millers in Punjab.

Asked about the plan on the basis of which the government was sure of procuring and storing paddy smoothly this Kharif marketing season, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said the commitment is to procure 185 LMT paddy which is about 124 LMT rice.

“If we take the average procurement of rice we have done in the past five years it is 84 LMT. By December on an average we have procured 15.5 LMT over the past five years. So even if we take that average we already have 14 LMT space available today and will have 16 LMT by November 1, more capacity than we need. Some vested interests are peddling rumours about the issue of space. Even in the peak season of 2019 we had only 13 LMT space in Punjab. Today we have more,” said Chopra.

He also explained that the Centre has made plans to move 13 to 15 LMT paddy out of Punjab every month.

“Even if you take the lower figure of 13 LMT per month evacuation of paddy we would have moved 67 LMT out of Punjab by March. State government has offered us 40 LMT space which we have taken. So there is no issue of space,” Chopra said.

The minister added that the Centre had already released 9820 crore to state agencies that have procured around 49 LMT of paddy out of 54 LMT that has come to Punjab mandis so far.

“These agencies have further released Rs 7640 crore to the farmers of Punjab,” Joshi said.

He also said that the FCI portal was not hosting an application on which rice millers can put in grievances which the Centre will address in the next three working days.