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The Union Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Minister KV Thomas today assured the Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adaish Partap Singh Kairon that his Ministry would announce relaxations in the specifications of Paddy procurement positively by Thursday.
Kairon, who met the Union Food, Consumer Affairs and Distribution Minister in New Delhi, seeking his personal intervention to immediately announce these exemptions.
The Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister apprised Thomas that the Central teams sent by his ministry had visited various mandis across the state last week to assess the damage caused to paddy in terms of discoloration and moisture content due to inclement weather lashed by unseasonal and unprecedented rains and hailstorm in September last and thus collected samples to further examine and subsequently recommend relaxations in these specifications.
He impressed upon Thomas to announce these relaxations forthwith so as enable the government agencies to procure paddy quickly in a prompt and hassle free manner as the factors like discoloration and moisture content were proving to be a major hurdle in the way smooth procurement of paddy. Kairon further requested the Union Minister that it was incumbent on the part of the Government of India (GoI) to bail out the state's peasantry in this hour of crisis, on the contrary our farmers were being penalized for the fault none of their because unusual climatic conditions that resulted in damaged food grains was beyond anyone’s control.
Responding to various issues raised by Kairon, the Union Minister reiterated that the Ministry would certainly announce relaxations in prescribed parameters of paddy procurement within next 48 hours. Thomas also assured that FCI authorities would be directed to ensure lifting of its allotted quota of paddy besides taking a sympathetic view of resolving other issues raised by Mr. Kairon with the Ministry of Railways in a holistic manner.
