Jalandhar: Stepping forward towards ensuring a smooth and hassle procurement season, the Jalandhar district today nearly touched the 80% mark of procurement of expected paddy grains in all the 78 purchase centres of the district.
Divulging the details, Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar Varinder Kumar Sharma today said that since the starting of procurement of grains in the district from October 1 in the state, 806366 metric ton paddy has arrived in the mandis across the district out of which 796804 metric ton has been purchased by the various agencies. Meanwhile, today 35541 metric ton of paddy had arrived in the district out of which 35119 metric ton was purchased by the various procurement agencies. Adhering by the state government guidelines to lift the paddy within 48 hours of its purchase the procurement agencies have till now lifted 692081 metric tons of paddy out of total 777121 metric ton of grains procured on October 27, which was around 95 % of the total procured grains.
Likewise, the Deputy Commissioner said that the district administration has till now made a payment of Rs 1129.47 crore to the farmers for their produce, which was roughly 98 % of the total payment of the farmers. He said that in order to avoid any sort of inconvenience to the farmers during the procurement operations elaborate arrangements were made by the district administration. Mr. Sharma said that all the chiefs of the all six procurement agencies have been asked to personally supervise the Paddy procurement operations ensuring prompt and smooth lifting of paddy as per their allotted share of procurement. Likewise, he said that directions were also issued to officers to make foolproof arrangements in mandis to avoid wastage of the produce besides ensuring proper sanitation facilities in them.
Pertinently, the procurement of about 10 lakh metric ton of paddy was expected in the district this year for which 78 mandis/purchase centers were notified for the procurement of paddy. Deputy Commissioner had been personally monitoring the entire paddy procurement operations through daily monitoring meetings at his office.