Union Government fails to shift crops lying in the state godowns leading to storage shortage
Punjab Newsline, Chandigarh, October 22-
Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, on Tuesday, trained guns at Central Government for deliberately delaying the shifting of previously stored crops from the state godowns, which resulted in space crunch and affected the pace ongoing paddy procurement operations. The slow lifting of paddy crop sparked string of the protests by farmers and rice millers across the state.
The Agricultural Minister informed that Punjab Government has procured over 28 LMT paddy of total 31 LMT arrived in the Grain Markets across the state so far.
On slow lifting of the procured paddy, Khudian said that Punjab state has always faced challenges due to step motherly treatment being meted out by the Central Government. He said that despite Punjab Government has been ensuring prompt purchase of paddy crop, the delay in lifting of crops purchased in previous seasons from godowns by the centre leading to storage shortage, hence, delay in lifting.