Govt to open paddy procurement centres for farmers: Zulfkar

Inaugurates Paddy Procurement Mandi at Channu Chak

JAMMU, OCTOBER 24 – Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Tribal Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today said the government is opening paddy procurement centres in the state to keep a check on the role of middlemen and providing maximum benefit to the farmers for their produce.

The Minister was speaking after inaugurating paddy procurement centre at Channu Chak in Marh.

MLA, Marh Sukhnandan Choudhary, Director, FCS&CA R.A Inqalabi, Director, Agriculture H.K Razdan, General Manager, Food Corporation of India Kishore Kumar and other senior offices were present on the occasion. 

The Minister informed that the government is going to establish Food and Civil Supplies Corporation in the state which would start procurement of paddy in the coming years. The idea behind this is to provide relief to the farmers by procuring their produce at reliable rates, he added.

The Minister further informed that Minimum Support Price of paddy common has been fixed at Rs 1,550 per quintal and paddy grade-A at Rs 1,590 per quintal for current Kharif Marketing Season 2017-18. He said the government is giving stress to further streamline the paddy procurement process so that the farmers don’t face any difficulty in selling their produce.

 Sukhnandan Choudhary in his speech said that a shed would be constructed for the farmers in Channu Chak to save their food grains from rains and advised the farmers to provide copy of their bank details to the officers at the time of selling their paddy. Besodes, a paddy procurement mandi would be opened in Suhanjana for the convenience of local farmers, he added.