Badal blames Centre's norms for 'hindrances' in paddy purchase

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said the norms fixed for procuring paddy have turned out to be "hindrances" for the process in the state.
"The specifications laid down by the Union Government, for paddy purchase, are creating hindrances in the smooth procurement of paddy in the state," Badal said here.
Talking to media persons after inaugurating a function here today, the Chief Minister said, "Union government fixes the criteria of purchasing paddy arbitrarily without ascertaining the ground realities in states, which creates problems in the entire paddy procurement."
Paddy procurement in Punjab has been adversely affected with farmers alleging non-procurement of crop by government agencies citing higher moisture content, he said.

It was learnt, that the level of moisture content in paddy arrivals was found to be more than 20 per cent which was in excess of permissible limit of 17 per cent.
Paddy growers are demanding from the Centre to relax norms for higher moisture content and discoloured grains during paddy purchase.

Badal further claimed that the state government has made elaborate arrangements to procure crop in a hassle-free and prompt manner.
Talking about the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, Badal claimed that the BJP-led NDA alliance would form the next government at the Centre. He said that all the opinion polls were clearly indicating that the Congress-led UPA government had "lost ground" following its "failure" on all fronts.

Badal said, "The countrymen are fed up with the blatant corruption, inflation, unemployment and poverty prevailing in the country due to Congress' misrule and are eagerly waiting for the general elections to teach them a lesson.