Chandigarh, Nearly 94 lakh tonne of paddy has been procured in Punjab this season, Food and Supplies officials said on Wednesday.
The total procurement of paddy till Tuesday evening was over 93.81 lakh tonne. Over 99 per cent of the paddy has been procured by government agencies (93.12 lakh tonne) while the remaining has been procured by private millers (over 69,034 tonne).
Payment of Rs 12,356.83 crore has been transferred to the accounts of ‘arthiyas’ (commission agents) and farmers by the government, a spokesman said.
Paddy procurement started in the agrarian state on October 1 but the bulk of the stocks started coming after October 10.
The Central government had sanctioned a Cash Credit Limit (CCL) amount of Rs 29,695.40 crore for procurement of paddy in the kharif marketing season 2018-19. The Punjab government had demanded Rs 40,300 crore.
The Punjab government has made arrangements for a bumper procurement of 200 lakh tonne of paddy this season.
In 2017-18, a total of 179.34 lakh tonne of paddy was procured.
