Tardy wheat lifting mars procurement

Slow lifting of wheat continued to hamper its procurement in a large number of mandis across the state today.

Due to this, 61.50 per cent of the wheat purchased by government procurement agencies was lying in 170 grain markets and purchase centres of Sangrur district till April 23, official sources said.

The government procurement agencies procured 4,26,040 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat in the district till Wednesday evening, of which only 1,63,989 MT was lifted. Thus, 2,62,051 MT of wheat was lying unlifted in the open in grain markets and purchase centres of Sangrur district till last evening.

However, the traders had purchased 1,63,008 MT of wheat in the grain markets and purchase centres till Wednesday evening, while they had lifted every grain of the wheat till last evening. The government agencies are purchasing wheat on the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,425 per quintal, while the traders have been reportedly purchasing wheat at Rs 5 per quintal above the MSP ie Rs 2,430.

The civil administration in Muktsar today initiated a verification process for trucks deployed to transport the wheat crop from mandis under a government contract, following allegations of discrepancies in vehicle registration details. The move comes in the wake of allegations made by the Grain Market Mazdoor Union, which claimed that the transport contractor had submitted bogus or non-existent registration numbers for some vehicles, thus making wheat bags pile up at the grain markets.

The issue of the tardy lifting is being reported from almost every district of the state. To avoid such problem in Jalandhar, special mandis have been made operational here. Notably, there are 78 mandis in the district and 23 temporary yards have been made operational along with existing regular mandis for this season to avoid glut and smooth procurement.

Amidst reports of the tardy lifting of the crop, Deputy Commissioner Dr Preeti Yadav visited Patiala and other grain markets to review the wheat procurement process. As of now, about 3 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has been lifted from all 147 mandis under Ludhiana East and West circles. In Punjab, Pathankot district remains on top in lifting, followed by Gurdaspur and then Ludhiana. Meanwhile, many farmers also complained that in several mandis, bags were not being given to them on time and for getting the moisture content checked, they had to wait for two-three days.

Punjab