Chandigarh: The Central Government will provide direct delivery of wheat from the procurement centers of Punjab to other states. In this hour of difficulty, the Centre has now remembered Punjab again.
For the first time, the wheat godowns in Punjab are almost empty and wheat will go directly from Punjab to other states. The Food Corporation of India has issued a letter in this regard that the wheat crop should be stored in covered godowns and has also been asked to prepare a detailed action plan in this regard.
The food corporation has also asked for a plan to be made for direct delivery from mandis to other states. Sources say that the food corporation of India can also store wheat in Punjab instead of the state agencies in its covered warehouses. There are people’s elections next year and the country is heading towards a food crisis, due to which the Centre’s focus is now on Punjab.
A senior official said that free food grains are also to be given under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana’ and the production of wheat in the above four states is expected to be affected, in view of which the Center has already become alert. It is to be seen that a short time ago, the central government was targeting the farmers by bringing new farm laws, the same Government of India has now started looking at the face of Punjab in the days of food shortage.
At present, only about two lakh tonnes of food grains are left in the godowns in Punjab as compared to around 40 lakh tonnes in these days a year ago. Punjab has received the highest number of railway rakes in the last two years and has rapidly supplied food grains from the state.
Last year, Punjab procured 96.45 lakh tonnes of wheat as against 127.14 lakh tonnes in 2021-22. About 36 lakh tonnes of production was cut. Production of wheat was reduced by 43 lakh tonnes in Haryana and 82 lakh tonnes in Madhya Pradesh.
This time, the wheat crop has been hit due to rains and hailstorms in Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh and the Centre fears a cut in production, as a result of which the time of Punjab’s annadata has increased significantly.
During the year 2022-23, Punjab has received about 8800 railway rakes for movement of food grains as compared to 9176 last year. It is clear from this that there has been rapid movement of food grains from Punjab.
Recently, about 8 lakh metric tonnes of food grains have been sold under the open sale quota. The figure of railway rakes received by Punjab had never crossed seven thousand. Punjab was given 5516 rakes in the year 2012-12, 5926 rakes in the year 2015-16, 5825 rakes in the year 2018-19 and 5115 railway rakes in the year 2019-20 for the supply of food grains. The figure of railway rakes received by Haryana has never exceeded three thousand.
Meanwhile, Punjab has set a target of procuring 132 lakh metric tonnes of wheat. Crops in 16 districts of Punjab have been damaged due to rains.