Latest News | Punjab Minister Asks Food Dept Staff to Call off Protest; Stir Hits Transportation of Foodgrain for PDS

Chandigarh, Nov 30 (PTI) Punjab's Food and Civil Supplies Minister Lal Singh Kataruchak on Wednesday asked the employees of his department to call off their strike and resume duties, assuring them that nobody will be harassed by probe agencies.

The ongoing stir has adversely impacted the movement of foodgrain stocks meant for public distribution system (PDS) in other states.

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Punjab, known as the food bowl of the country, is one of the major producing states of wheat and paddy.

Employees of the state food and civil supplies department have been protesting for the past few days against the arrest of two officers of the rank of district food and civil supplies controller by the state vigilance bureau (VB) in a multi-crore foodgrain transportation tenders scam.

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Former minister and Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu had already been arrested in this scam.

In a meeting held here on Wednesday, Kataruchak assured the representatives of the Confederation of the Officers and Joint Coordination Committee of the Punjab state foodgrain agencies that those working with dedication need not worry and they will not be hounded or harassed by the state probe agencies, according to an official statement.

Kataruchak and Principal Secretary of Food and Civil Supplies department Rahul Bhandari held separate meetings with the agitating employees.

It was assured that the VB would be requested to not initiate any proceedings before taking proper feedback or comments of the heads of the agencies.

The strike has hit the offtake of foodgrain from Punjab.

Food Corporation of India Chairman and Managing Director Ashok K K Meena has also written a letter to Punjab Chief Secretary V K Janjua seeking resolution of the issue.

In a letter to the chief secretary, Meena wrote that the ongoing strike of employees of the procurement agencies was hampering the evacuation of stocks by rakes as well as ongoing rice procurement operations in the Punjab region.

Any disruption in rake loading may lead to dislocation of PDS in recipient regions, Meena wrote.

Meena further pointed out that the strike may adversely affect the squaring up of the cash credit limit account of rabi marketing season 2021-22 of Punjab as the wheat liquidation of crop year 2021-22 has to be completed before the end of December 2022.

Further, the strike may result in delay in acceptance of custom-milled rice by FCI and payment to the state government, wrote Meena in the letter.

(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)