Chandigarh, Apr 11 (PTI) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his Deputy Dushyant Chautala on Tuesday welcomed the Centre's decision to relax the uniform specifications of wheat during procurement season 2023-24.

According to an official statement, Khattar expressed gratitude for relaxation in the uniform specifications of wheat during procurement season 2023-24 in view of lustre loss or shrivelled and broken grains in Rabi crops due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms.

Also Read | India Will Become Third Largest Economy in the World, Says Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey.

The chief minister said that in view of the problems faced by the farmers, he spoke to the Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Piyush Goyal over the telephone, who assured that the government would relax the procurement norms for wheat.

In this regard, a circular to this effect has been issued by the central government.

Also Read | EV Sale: Electric Two-Wheeler Sales in India Rise Over Two-and-Half Fold to 8,46,976 Units in 2022-23.

Chautala extended gratitude towards Prime Minister and Union Minister Piyush Goyal and said that the central government has now given permission to the procurement agencies to buy wheat even at a maximum lustre loss of up to 80 per cent.

Similarly, there will be no reduction in the purchase price if there is a 6 per cent shrinkage in wheat grain, and till the decision of the central government, the Haryana government will bear the minor deduction on the purchase of wheat with shrivelled grains up to 18 per cent, Chautala said.

Khattar said that farming is such a business which always involves risk, including having to face the vagaries of weather.

Referring to last month's heavy rains in several parts of the state, the chief minister said that a similar pattern was witnessed in 2015 when unseasonal rains in the month of February caused damage to the wheat crops. At that time, the state government had given a compensation of Rs 1,190 crore to the farmers before May-June.

He said that for this year too, the work of Girdawari (field inspection) for crop loss is underway and the e-Fasal Kshatipurti portal is also open, where farmers can upload their crop loss information.

The compensation will be given to the farmers after verification by the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department and Revenue and Disaster Management Department; and this time also, full compensation will be provided to the farmers by May, he noted.

The chief minister said that the government is standing with the farmers at every step. Each grain of wheat will be procured at the rate of Rs 2,125 per quintal.

He said that farmers are paid for their crops procured within 48-72 hours.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)