Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Saturday said that 52 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured in the state and Rs 10,000 crore has been paid to the farmers so far as the payments are being made within 48 hours. Chautala reiterated the state government's commitment towards ensuring the welfare of the farmers and said the payment of crop procurement to the farmers has been directly transferred to their accounts within 48 hours.
Last year, the government had set a target of making the payment to the farmers within 72 hours, but this time going a step ahead, the payments have been made in just 48 hours, he said.
"So far, a record 52 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured in the state and Rs 10,000 crore has been paid to the farmers," Chautala said while chairing a review meeting with the officers of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department here.
During the meeting, detailed discussions were held on the arrangements made for the purchase of crops, including paddy and bajra, an official statement said.
He directed that in the case of those farmers whose payments have been delayed due to technical reasons should be informed through SMS and the pending payments should be cleared immediately after rectifying these technical flaws.
The deputy chief minister further directed the officers to submit the report regarding the compensation of the crops affected by the heavy rains in the recent past, so that the farmers could get their compensation amount at the earliest.
With paddy procurement having begun in the state from October 1, Chautala said that 46 lakh MT of paddy was procured during the corresponding period last year, whereas this time 52,47,111 metric tonnes of paddy has been procured until Friday, which is about 13 per cent more as compared to the previous year.
In Kurukshetra, Karnal and Kaithal districts, there has been more procurement than normal, he said.
Notably, 210 Mandis have been opened for the purchase of paddy in the state.
Chautala also said that so far 81,313.70 metric tonnes of bajra has been procured by HAFED, the apex cooperative federation of the state, at the Minimum Support Price.
The highest purchase of 22,223.90 metric tonnes was done in Bhiwani. Similarly, 15,710.45 MT has been procured in Jhajjar and 14,757 MT in Mahendragarh.
He said the procurement of groundnut would start on November 1. For this, 7 mandis have been set up in Fatehabad, Hisar and Sirsa districts.
Groundnut would be procured at MSP and this time Rs 5,850 per quintal MSP has been fixed, he added.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)