Punjab: With less than a week left for the start of wheat procurement, the Punjab government has asked the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to immediately take delivery of previous years’ grain stored in state warehouses to free up space for this year’s wheat. In a letter to the FCI chairman, the Punjab government warned that if more space is not created immediately and the 22 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of wheat expected to arrive in the mandis when wheat procurement begins on April 1st is not directly delivered, it will lead to a glut in the mandis, which, in turn, could lead to a law and order situation due to unrest among farmers and other stakeholders. This year, 125 LMT of wheat is expected to arrive in the mandis. Currently, the state has approximately 100 LMT of space – both in covered and plinth (CAP) storage and warehouses/silo storage. The state government has appealed to the FCI, “Despite the best efforts of the state procurement agencies to identify storage space, there is still a shortage of approximately 22 LMT of wheat storage space across the state, with Amritsar and Tarn Taran facing the most severe storage shortages. Therefore, it is necessary to transport this 22 LMT of wheat directly from the mandis to the FCI at the respective railheads during the procurement season.”
Official sources in the state’s Food and Supplies Department told The Tribune that although 5 to 6 LMT of grain from previous years is being shipped out of the state every month, more space will be created only if they shift 15-16 LMT of grain per month. The state government has also detailed the quantity of wheat for direct delivery of rice from the railhead in each district, stating that 860 special trains are required to transport 22,067.61 MT of grain to the receiving states, including 409 special trains in April and 440 special trains in May this year. The government has requested that 2.08 LMT of grain be shifted from Amritsar and 2.54 LMT from Tarn Taran. The state government has informed the FCI chairman that increased procurement of grain across the country and low demand from consumer states for the last two years have created storage problems, which has affected the supply of grain from Punjab. The letter states, “In view of the gravity of the situation and to address the space constraints, it is requested to issue necessary instructions to the concerned FCI officials to allow direct delivery of wheat.”
Punjab: Make space for new wheat in mandis, shift old stock, hand over the state to Food Corporation of India
