Chandigarh:- The Central Government has finally announced relaxation in procurement norms for Punjab for wheat crop. According to a letter issued by the Union Food Ministry today, now the crop will be procured from Punjab on new procurement norms. The Punjab Government had written a letter to the Centre on April 9 seeking a reprieve in the procurement norms.
After the neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Haryana, now the Centre has relaxed the procurement norms for wheat in Punjab and Chandigarh UT. After the central decision, there is a possibility of speeding up the procurement of the commodity in the procurement centres of Punjab. Central teams had filled 291 samples from 22 districts of the state, after testing which the Food Corporation of India had recommended to the Union Food Ministry to relax the procurement norms for Punjab.
According to a letter issued by the Union Food Ministry today, now up to 70 percent of the discolored (luster loss) crop will also be purchased in Punjab and the quantity of shrunken and broken grains has also been increased to 15 percent. The quantity of damaged grains has been reduced to 6 percent.
The Union Food Ministry has said that the crop purchased under the relaxation in the procurement norms should be stored separately and also said that if the quality of the crop purchased under the new norms is affected during storage, then the responsibility will be of the state government. It is worth mentioning that about 1.30 lakh acres of crop has been damaged due to rain in the state.
The arrival of the crop in the procurement centers of Punjab has increased at present, but due to the difficulty in the procurement norms, the procurement agencies were reluctant to purchase the crop. Now, while the Punjab government has breathed a sigh of relief with the central decision, the farmers have also got a big relief.