Chandigarh, April 20:
Punjab Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu today informed that under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, direct payments worth more than Rs 2600 crore have been made to accounts of farmers till today. He said that payments worth Rs 1141 crore were cleared till yesterday, Rs 1500 crore was cleared till today and payments worth a total of Rs 4200 crore would be cleared by tomorrow.
He assured the farmers that every single grain produced by them would be procured by the Capt Amarinder Singh led Punjab government.
In a press statement issued here today, Bharat Bhushan Ashu said that 54 lakh MT of wheat has arrived in mandis of the state, out of which
50 lakh MT has already been procured and more than 20 lakh MT has already been lifted by various government agencies. He assured that both procurement as well as lifting would be speed up in coming days.
On the issue of Bardana (storage bags), Bharat Bhushan Ashu said that due to Covid19 and elections in West Bengal, many of the jute mills are shut, leading to shortage of jute bags across the country. He said that they had even taken up this issue with Jute Commissioner of India, but he failed to help the state. He said that there was some shortage of Bardana initially, but now the matter has been resolved. He said that on April 12, 2021, the government of India has allowed the state government for the use of used bardana by arhtiyas, for which Rs 41.90 per bag has been fixed.
Bharat Bhushan Ashu urged leaders across political parties to not politicise this issue as there is no shortage of bardana in the state now. He also appealed to them to either contact him or District Administration or his department in case there is any problem to the farmers in mandis and assured that all problems would be resolved on priority basis.
On the issue of DBT, Ashu said that the Punjab government has already been making direct payments to the farmers since last 18 months and assured that payments to each and every farmer would be made within set stipulated time. He said that in Punjab, both the farmers and the arhtiyas (commission agents) are happy from the ongoing wheat procurement.
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