Plan to send 40 lakh tons of rice out of Punjab

25-Oct-2024 04:12 PM

Chandigarh. The Central Government has planned to send 40 lakh tons of rice from Punjab to other states in the next three to four months so that space in the godowns can be freed up and help in safe storage of newly procured rice.

Apart from this, efforts will also be made to create space for storing 20 lakh tons of additional grain. It is worth mentioning that in Punjab, the state which contributes the most food grains to the central pool,

due to lack of safe storage facilities and refusal of rice millers to lift the rice, paddy has piled up in the markets and the pace of its government procurement has slowed down.

Due to this, farmers are facing great difficulties and in some areas they are being forced to sell their paddy at prices below the minimum support price.

Food Corporation of India has been asked to send large quantities of rice from Punjab to areas with high consumption of rice so that the pace of paddy procurement in the state can be increased.

Although a meeting has already taken place between the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Union Food Minister in this regard and the Centre had also assured to solve the storage problem as soon as possible,

but till now no concrete steps have been taken in this direction, due to which the difficulties of the paddy producers of the state have increased a lot.

Now the Food Corporation has planned to send rice from Punjab to other states on a weekly basis, but it will take a long time to transport 40 lakh tons of rice.

The Union Food Minister had assured that the target of purchasing 120 lakh tons of paddy in Punjab will be achieved.

It is understood that the government is also planning to temporarily store paddy and rice in the warehouses reserved for wheat as an immediate solution.