PATIALA:To ensure smooth paddy procurement operations in State Mandis, Secretary, Punjab Mansi Board, Ravi Bhagat, IAS today visited Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali Mandis and interacted with farmers and other stakeholders to enquire about their problems related to purchase, if any.
After inspecting procurement arrangements in Rajpura Mandi, interacting at Patiala Mandi, Mr. Bhagat said that in wake of COVID spread, it was a challenging task to gear up for procurement of paddy but by taking proper precautions like hand wash stations, earmarking of space to avoid chaos, proper sanitization of mandis, we had been succeeded to start uninterrupted and safe operations of procurement at more than 4000 locations in Punjab.
He said that so far state mandis witnessed an arrival of 15.50 lakh MT paddy and all the produce have been purchased. He said that during today's interaction with the farmers and arhtiyas, all have expressed satisfaction with the procurement process.
Mr. Bhagat during his visit of Patiala Mandi, also got checked moisture content randomly. He appealed to the farmers to bring produce within specifications of moisture content laid by Government of India.
To avoid chaos in Mandis, the pass system introduced during the previous season, is proving successful and so far a total of five lakh passes have been issued, added Secretary Mandi Board.
Exhorting farmers to not to set on fire the paddy straw and crop residual, Mr. Bhagat Said that instead of polluting environment by burning paddy straw, we should use of paddy straw disposing machinery like super SMS fitted combines, Choppers etc. that were being made available by state government to various individuals, cooperative societies and farmers' groups on subsidy.
Reiterating the commitment of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh of procuring every single grain of paddy, he said that procurement operations would continue till November 30 so farmers should bring their produce in Mandis in time.