Periodic meetings being held to monitor paddy procurement: Centre to HC
The Centre also said that several high-level meetings have been conducted with the Punjab government and follow-up actions are being taken up as a priority to ensure adequate storage arrangements are in place for the custom milled rice (CMR).
The Centre on Tuesday informed the Punjab and Haryana high court that periodic meetings are being held between central government agencies and the state to monitor paddy procurement.
Additional solicitor general of India, Satya Pal Jain informed high court bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Anil Kshetarpal that a two-pronged strategy is being adopted to address the issue of shortage of storage in Punjab under which additional movement of food grains from the state has been planned and creation of new storage capacity is being undertaken on priority.
The information was given during resumed hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by one Sunpreet, demanding procurement of paddy with immediate effect and to create space for storage of milled rice being procured during this season.
The Centre also said that several high-level meetings have been conducted with the Punjab government and follow-up actions are being taken up as a priority to ensure adequate storage arrangements are in place for the custom milled rice (CMR).
A high-level committee headed by chairman and managing director, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and department of food and public distribution officials are monitoring the movement of rice from Punjab on a weekly basis, Jain told the court adding that follow up meetings are being held every Thursday and out of the all-India movement plan of FCI of 34.75 LMT for the month of October, around 40% has been allocated to Punjab.
The HC was also told that the next meeting would be held on October 31 and all the issues would be resolved.
In view of this, the high court has disposed of the plea observing that issue raised relates more to market forces and is dependent upon various variable factors, which change every day and essentially relates to policy decisions between Central government and the state government. “We hope and expect that the central government and state government will sit at the same table and resolve the dispute as expeditiously as possible,” the court recorded while disposing of the PIL.
