CM Mann meets union food minister, raises issues of rice millers & arhtiyas
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met Union Minister Prahlad Joshi in New Delhi to address challenges faced by rice millers and arhtiyas during paddy procurement. Mann highlighted issues like storage shortages, transportation costs, driage reductions, and out-turn ratios, seeking solutions and appropriate commission rates
Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann met Union Minister Prahlad Joshi in New Delhi to address rice millers and arhtiyas’ issues affecting paddy procurement. Mann highlighted storage shortages, transportation costs, driage reductions, and out-turn ratio concerns, seeking solutions and proper commission rates. Joshi assured support and consideration for these demands.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday met union food and consumer affairs minister Prahlad Joshi CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday met union food and consumer affairs minister Prahlad Joshi in New Delhi to raise the issue of rice millers and arhtiyas (commission agents) which is resulting in tardy lifting of paddy stocks during the ongoing procurement season.The state government claimed that the Centre has “acceded to majority of demands raised by CM Mann.” Mann pointed out that due to persistent shortage of storage of space during the previous season and availability of only about 7 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) storage space as on date, there was resentment amongst the rice millers of the State for carrying out milling.
“This is adversely affecting the procurement/lifting of paddy from mandis thus leading to resentment amongst farmers,” he said.The CM urged Joshi to ensure smooth procurement operations and movement of stocks, thereby ensuring liquidation of at-least 20 LMT food grains per month from the state till March 31 next year. Joshi agreed to transport 120 lakh metric ton paddy from outside the state by March, said an official spokesperson.Flagging the issue of payment of transportation charges to millers for delivery of rice, Mann said that due to non-availability of storage space at the linked milling centres, the FCI often offers space to the millers to deliver rice at their depots which are in majority of the cases located at a distance ranging from 50-100 Kms. Mann said that sometimes such depots are even located outside the State, which puts extra financial burden on the miller in terms of cost of over-transportation.
He requested Joshi that transportation charges for actual distance travelled for delivery of rice be reimbursed to the milers without any deduction of backward charges and others. Joshi assured that the Centre would bear the transportation cost incurred by millers in this regard, said the spokesperson.Mann also raised the issue of driage in paddy, that is allowed @ 1% of the minimum support price (MSP) since decades which was reduced to 0.5% of MSP during last season unilaterally. He sa9d that this has resulted in undue financial losses to the rice millers, who were already under financial strain due to space crunch and has aggravated resentment amongst them.
It was demanded that driage may be restored to 1% of MSP. The union minister informed that the Centre was already getting a study conducted on the issue at IIT Kharagpur and Punjab’s view point would be incorporated. Raising the issue of Out-Turn Ratio of hybrid varieties of paddy, Mann said that Out-turn Ratio for Grade A paddy has been fixed at 67% by the Centre. Mann said that millers have claimed that the OTR of short-term paddy varieties was lesser than 67% and needs to be re-assessed adding he requested the Union Minister to depute the Central teams to study the OTR of these varieties of paddy. Mann also sought commission for arhtiyas as per the Punjab APMC Act, adding that the commission rates had not been revised for the last five years.
He said that while the MSP of crops is increased every year by the Centre, the arhtiyas are being paid commission @ Rs 45.38 to 46 per quintal only since 2019-20, despite the fact that the Punjab State Agriculture Produce Market Committee Act, Rules, bye-laws provide for a commission of 2.5% on MSP, which comes out to be Rs 58 per quintal in the current Kharif season.Mann said that it is pertinent to mention that despite challenges in procurement during the last four years, like COVID 19 pandemic, shortage of labour, weather disturbances during the season and quicker pace of arrival in mandis due to mechanical harvesting, the Arhtiyas have been ensuring smooth procurement of food grains under Central pool.Mann said that there is huge resentment amongst the arhtiyas at the ground level due to no increase in their commission. He urged the union minister to ensure that the commission of arhtiyas is allowed @ 2.5% of MSP. Joshi assured that the Centre would sympathetically consider this demand of the state government and arhtiyas in its next meeting.
