Chandigarh, April 7: The state government on Friday negotiated with the protesting truck operators to ensure that the procured crop is transported smoothly, thus ending the impasse over the transportation of wheat this season.
Maintaining that the tendering process will go on as scheduled, officials in the Food and Supplies Department said the operators would be allowed to participate in the bidding for the remaining clusters.
Happy Sandhu, President of the Truck Operators Union, said the persons who had submitted false papers would be weeded out on a day’s notice.
The government also initiated the process to allow the commission agents as well as farmers to ferry the produce from the mandis to the godowns of the procurement agencies.
A senior functionary in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said the government had directed the Punjab Mandi Board to initiate the process to issue a notification so as to facilitate commission agents to ferry the produce in their trucks.
The government is also in the process of issuing specifications for registration of tractor-trailers for transportation of wheat from mandis to godowns.
It is for the first time that the government has capped the transport and cartage rate at 120 per cent of the scheduled rate.
Besides bringing down the rates at which the wheat will be transported from mandis, the government has also roped in rice millers, labour and construction societies to lift and transport the procured wheat.
Source Tribune India
