The Centre Sunday said all measures are in place to ensure smooth procurement operations in Punjab for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2024-25.

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi, who held a press conference on the measures taken by the Centre to ensure seamless paddy and Custom Milled Rice (CMR) procurement in Punjab, reiterated that the target of 185 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) fixed for KMS 2024-25 will be fully procured and not a single grain of paddy will be left unprepared.

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The Minister also announced that an online portal for grievance redressal of rice millers will be launched shortly so that any difficulties faced by the stakeholders can be addressed promptly.

In Punjab, the procurement of paddy officially commenced on October 1 with 2700 designated mandis, including temporary yards, to ensure smooth operations. Due to heavy rainfall in September and higher moisture content in paddy, the harvesting and procurement were slightly delayed. However, despite a late start, the state is on track now to achieve its target of procuring 185 LMT of paddy by November 2024. All measures are in place to ensure smooth procurement operations in Punjab for KMS 2024-25.

As on October 26, out of 54.5 LMT arrival in mandis, 50 LMT of paddy has been procured.

During KMS 2023-24, out of 65.8 LMT arrival, 61.5 LMT paddy had been procured by October 26, 2023.

MSP for Paddy(Common) has seen a substantial rise from Rs 1310 /Qtl in 2013-14 to Rs 2300/Qtl in 2024-25. A total of 3800 millers have applied for registration out of which 3250 millers have already been allotted the work by the Punjab government. More millers are expected to register and be allotted the work in the next 7 days.

To ensure that adequate storage arrangements are in place for the CMR, several high level meetings have been conducted with the Punjab State Government and follow-up actions are being taken up on priority. This includes, speedy evacuation of wheat stock to deficit states, hiring of Central Warehousing Corporation/ State Warehousing Corporation(CWC / SWC) Godowns on nomination basis, expediting creation of 31 LMT storage capacity under PEG scheme etc.

Out of the All-India Movement plan of 34.75 LMT for October, around 40 per cent i.e 13.76 LMT is allocated to Punjab . At present around 15 LMT storage space is vacant in Punjab. The delivery of CMR usually begins in December every year and by that time, sufficient space will be available to ensure smooth delivery of CMR by the millers.

A detailed depot-wise plan has been prepared to evacuate 13-14 LMT of wheat every month from Punjab until March 2025.

A high-level committee under the chairmanship of Chairman and Managing Director of Food Corporation of India (CMD FCI) is monitoring the movement plan and storage capacity creation/ hiring on a weekly basis so as to facilitate storage of rice stocks of KMS 2024-25.