Paddy lifting crosses 100 lakh metric tonnes, ₹27,000 crore transferred to farmers’ accounts: Lal Chand Kataruchak

Tarn Taran (The Uttam Hindu): Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak while terming the ongoing paddy procurement in Punjab’s mandis as historic, said that the government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has successfully proved that AAP’s policies are entirely pro-farmer. He stated that for the first time, farmers in Punjab are selling their crop without any harassment and receiving timely payments.

Releasing the latest data, Lal Chand Kataruchak said that due to the efficient management of the Mann Government, the figure of paddy lifting has crossed the major milestone of 100 lakh metric tonnes and a total of 104 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has already been lifted. He informed that more than 127 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has so far arrived in the mandis, out of which over 124 lakh metric tonnes has been completely procured by various government agencies.

Kataruchak said that the biggest achievement of the AAP government is the immediate payment to the farmers for their crops. He said that more than ₹27,000 crore has already been directly transferred into the accounts of farmers. Taking a jibe at previous governments, he said that these are the same mandis where earlier farmers had to sit on prolonged protests to receive their payments and due to lack of lifting, the mandis would become completely jammed.

Kataruchak said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has issued strict directives to ensure that no stakeholder in the mandi, including farmers, commission agents (arhtiyas) and labourers, faces any kind of difficulty. He also appealed to the farming community to bring fully dried crops to the mandis so that they can receive the full value of their hard work and the procurement process can be completed even faster.