Will ensure smooth wheat procurement: Minister

The state government is committed to ensuring smooth wheat procurement and safeguarding interests of all stakeholders. Since labourers loading/unloading produce in the mandis are an integral part of the procurement process, their labour rates have been increased to Rs 2.64 per sack.

This was stated by Food and Supply minister Lal Chand Kataruchak. He said they had increased labour rate by 43 paise this year. The rate last year was Rs 2.21 per sack.

He held a video conference with the DCs of all districts and directed them to ensure adequate storage space for wheat, he said.

He said 2,676 purchase centres had been set up, including 1,864 regular ones. Till now, 4.19 lakh metric tonne (LMT) wheat had arrived in mandis, out of which 3.22 LMT (76 per cent) had already been procured. Payments worth Rs 151 crore had been credited into the accounts of farmers, he added.

Punjab