Chandigarh – Government agencies and private millers procured more than 38.67 lakh tonnes of Paddy till last evening against 41.70 lakh tonnes procurement of previous year.
Out of total procurement of 3867238 tonnes of paddy in all the procurement centers of Punjab, Government agencies procured 36.50 lakh tonnes of paddy (94.4%) till date whereas private traders procured 216802 tonnes (5.6%) of paddy. Till October 16, PUNGRAIN had procured 982212 tonnes (26.9) whereas MARKFED procured 791360 tonnes (21.7%). PUNSUP procured 936044 tonnes (25.6%); PSWC procured 475084 tonnes (13.0%) whereas PAIC was able to procure 403618 tonnes (11.1 %) of paddy.
The Central Government agency FCI had been able to procure 62118 (1.7`%) tonnes.
The spokesman added that District Ferozepur with 470796 tonnes of procurement was leading in procurement operations whereas District Jalandhar with 418629 tonnes of procurement was at second slot and district Kapurthala with 346805 tonnes of procurement ranked at third position.
The State Government has set up 1745 procurement centres and activated its total machinery to ensure smooth procurement of paddy, the spokesman added.