Chandigarh, Oct 21 (PTI) Under attack from farmers and opposition parties over the delayed paddy procurement and lifting, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday issued directions to officials to ensure the lifting of crops from mandis across the state.

Meanwhile, Food Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said over 24 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has arrived so far, in mandis, of which 22.50 lakh MT has been procured.

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Almost 4.12 lakh MT has been lifted from mandis so far, he further said.

Chairing a meeting here to review procurement operations in the state, Mann said paddy should be lifted at the earliest in the state so that farmers do not have to face any inconvenience.

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Farmers of the state have played a key role in making the country self-reliant in food production, he said.

In this process, the food growers have even overexploited the only available natural resources of the state in terms of water and fertile soil, said Mann.

Despite the chief minister stating that farmers should not be allowed to face any sort of inconvenience in mandis, paddy growers claimed that the crop was not being lifted from mandis, leading to a glut in grain markets.

They have also claimed that despite paddy procurement operations starting on October 1 in the state, farmers were facing hardships in selling their crops.

Farmers under the banner of Bharti Kisan Union (Doaba) on Monday blocked a stretch of the national highway-44 near a sugar mill in Phagwara for an indefinite period to protest the tardy paddy procurement.

Protesting farmers led by BKU (D) president Manjit Singh Rai sat on the highway, blocking routes of Phagwara-Nakodar and Jalandhar-Ludhiana.

Party leader Satnam Singh Sahni in Phagwara said, "Our paddy was not being procured nor being lifted from mandis. We have brought a large number of trolleys laden with unsold paddy to prove it. We will continue blockade till purchase of paddy was started in all mandis".

On October 19, a delegation of Samyuta Kisan Morcha met Mann and gave an ultimatum to him, saying if the state government could not ensure smooth paddy procurement within four days, they would announce a "big decision".

Paddy lifting from mandis has been affected after the state rice millers refused to mill the paddy till their demands were met.

Rice millers have also expressed concern over the out-turn ratio (post-milling yield) of the PR-126 paddy variety, claiming that it will lead to huge losses.

They have said that the out-turn ratio of this variety is less than 67 per cent, a ratio which has been fixed by the Centre.

They are demanding that they should be allowed to give 64 kg of rice out of one quintal of paddy because of less yield in the PR-126 variety.

The state rice millers have also complained of space crunch for storing the fresh paddy crop and want the Centre to liquidate the existing wheat and paddy stock to create sufficient space.

However, minister Kataruchak said 11 lakh MT of space has been created for storing food grain.

A few days ago, Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa had lashed out at the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab over the tardy paddy procurement, alleging that the AAP's dispensation's failure to take timely action to address critical storage and procurement issues which resulted in "severe disruptions" across Punjab's agrarian economy.

A procurement target of 185 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from Punjab has been fixed for the 2024-25 Kharif Marketing season.

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