The Centre on Tuesday sanctioneda Cash Credit Limit (CCL) of Rs 29,695.40 crore for the procurement of paddy in the kharif marketing season 2018-19, official sources said.
Punjab had raised a demand of Rs 40,300 crore for this season.
"The amount has been released by the Reserve Bank of India for paddy procurement till October (end). The remaining Rs 10,604.60 will be released subsequently," a state government spokesperson said here.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had been pursuing the issue of early release of CCL so as to ensure timely payment to farmers for crop procured by government agencies.
The Chief Minister has directed all state procurement agencies to take immediate steps to ensure prompt lifting of the produce followed by timely release of payments.
The Punjab government has made arrangements for a bumper procurement of 200 lakh tonnes of paddy this season.
In 2017-18, as much as 179.34 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured, including 176.61 lakh tonnes by government agencies.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau is keeping a close watch and conducting surprise checks at grain markets across the state to ensure farmers did not face any difficulty in selling their crop.
Bureau Chief Director B.K. Uppal said that instructions have been issued to all concerned police officers to monitor the procurement operations in grain markets.
--IANS
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