Thomas’ assurance to Kairon on paddy procurement

By Punjabnewswire4u

NEW DELHI, OCT 30

The Union Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Minister, Mr. KV Thomas, assured the Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr Adaish Partap Singh Kairon, that his Ministry would announce relaxations in the specifications of paddy procurement positively by Thursday.

Mr.  Kairon, who met the Union Food, Consumer Affairs and Distribution Minister in his office here at Krishi Bhawan this evening, seeking his personal intervention to immediately announce these exemptions.                            

The Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister apprised Mr. Thomas that the Central teams sent by his ministry had visited various mandis across the state last week to assess the damage caused to paddy in terms of discoloration and moisture content due to inclement weather lashed by unseasonal and unprecedented rains and hailstorm in September last and thus collected samples to further examine and subsequently recommend relaxations in these specifications. He impressed upon Mr. Thomas to announce these relaxations forthwith so as enable the government agencies to procure paddy quickly in a prompt and hassle free manner as the factors like discoloration and moisture content were proving to be a major hurdle in the way smooth procurement of paddy. Mr. Kairon further requested the Union Minister that it was incumbent on the part of the Government of India (GoI) to bail out the state's peasantry in this hour of crisis, on the contrary our farmers were being penalized for the fault none of their  because unusual climatic conditions that resulted in damaged food grains was beyond anyone’s control.

Mr. Kairon reiterated that every single grain of the farmers crop would be lifted during the ongoing procurement operations across the state and all the farmers would be made payment of their crop within 48 hours. He also asked the Union Minister to direct the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure its allotted quota of 10% whereas it has so far hardly procured 4-5% much to the dismay of farmers. Mr. Kairon also took up the matter with the Union Minister for creating adequate space for the storage of paddy with the concerned quarters besides arranging requisite racks for transporting the grains with the Ministry of Railways as both these issues were crucial for speeding up the paddy procurement from Punjab, so as to facilitate the farmers as well as procurement agencies involved in these gigantic operations.

Responding to various issues raised by Mr. Kairon, the Union Minister reiterated that the Ministry would certainly announce relaxations in prescribed parameters of paddy procurement within next 48 hours. Mr. Thomas also assured that FCI authorities would be directed to ensure lifting of its allotted quota of paddy besides taking a sympathetic view of resolving other issues raised by Mr. Kairon with the Ministry of Railways in a holistic manner.   

Mr. Kairon was accompanied by Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Mr. DS Grewal. Prominent amongst other who attended the meeting included Secretary Food and Consumer Affairs GoI Mr. Sudhir Kumar, Joint Secretary Policy and Food Corporation of India Mr. UKS Chauhan.