Badal monitors paddy procurement operations

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today reviewed the operations of ongoing paddy procurement in the state and status of payments to the farmers at a meeting here.
"Badal, in a meeting with senior officers, expressed satisfaction over the smooth, hassle-free paddy procurement. Till date, 130 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of paddy have been procured in Punjab against procurement of 118 LMT of the crop last year", a spokesperson of the CMO said.
The CM has directed the procurement agencies to complete the entire operation positively by the end of this month, he said, adding Badal also assured the farmers that their payments would be made within 48 hours.

So far, the state has made payments of Rs 14,643 crore to the farmers for the procured paddy against due payment of Rs 17,000 crore.
On the position of lifting, the CM said of 126 lakh MT, 118 lakh MT of paddy has been lifted so far, an official release said.
Badal said he is committed to procurement of the crop and has assured that every single grain would be lifted during this season and wherever there was tardy movement of lifting in few mandis, the spokesperson added.