Nearly 46 lakh tonne paddy procured in Punjab

Chandigarh, Oct 23 (IANS) Nearly 46 lakh tonne of paddy has been procured in Punjab this season, food and supplies officials said on Tuesday.Government agencies and private millers have procured 45,98,716 tonne of paddy in Punjab till Monday, the officials said.Payment of Rs 4,998.47 crore has been transferred to the accounts of farmers and commission agents by the government, the officials added.Paddy procurement started in the agrarian state on October 1 but the bulk of stocks started coming after October 10.The Central government had recently sanctioned a Cash Credit Limit (CCL) amount of Rs 29,695.40 crore for procurement of paddy in the kharif marketing season 2018-19.The Punjab government had raised a demand of Rs 40,300 crore for paddy procurement this season.It has made arrangements for a bumper procurement of 200 lakh tonne of paddy this season.In 2017-18, a total of 179.34 lakh tonne of paddy was procured, of which 176.61 lakh tonne was done by government agencies.
--IANS js/mag/bg