New Delhi : As the harvest season begins in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday outlined several demands to the Centre including that the procurement rate for dry harvest be adjusted from 0.5% to 1%.
A critical meeting on paddy procurement in Punjab took place in Delhi, chaired by Union Food Minister Prahlad Joshi, Minister of State for Food Ravneet Singh Bittu, and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The meeting aimed to address key issues and strategies for efficient food grain procurement in Punjab.
Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu stated that any issue of the farmers will be addressed on priority.
“Under the leadership of Modi ji, the BJP govt. has taken every possible step to empower and support farmers in Punjab including timely sanction of CCL limit for procurement of paddy. Any other issues of farmers will also be addressed on priority,” Bittu wrote in a post on X.
Speaking to the media, Bhagwant Mann said. “Harvesting season in Punjab has begun. it is like a festival in Punjab because the economy of the state depends on it. Punjab has continuously been giving the maximum contribution to the food stock of the country. We will sell 180 lakh metric tons of our harvest to the centre. We are sceptical about things taking shape like last year.”
The Chief Minister also stressed the need for proper milling facilities, stating, “We want proper space to be created for milling rice which will begin on 15 November.”
He added that Punjab currently holds 120 lakh metric tons of rice, with the government promising to clear it by March 31.
“We put forward a few demands, the first being that the transportation should be provided by the centre and that the dry harvest be procured at 1% rather than 0.5%… They have agreed to meet our demands,” Mann said while speaking to the media.
Earlier, farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal alleged that the Punjab and Delhi governments have not been able to start the procurement of crops even after October 1, due to which commission agents, farmers, and rice millers are all agitated. He said that due to the policies of the government, the situation in the mandis has worsened and the government is ignoring the problems of the farmers.
Rajewal has issued a warning that if the government did not solve their problems, a big agitation would be launched in Punjab on the lines of the farmers’ agitation on the Delhi border.