Inquiries made by The Indian Express today revealed that Markfed and the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation have expressed helplessness in lifting the already procured wheat saying that they have no space for storage of the procured wheat bags.

President of the Federation of Arhtiya associations of Punjab, Bal Krishan Singla said that despite the claim made by the Civil Supplies Minister that payment for the procured produce was being made within 72 hours, farmers whose produce was purchased by these government agencies from April 6 onwards, had not been paid so far.

Singla said that he had made inquiries from arhtiyas from all over the state, who had complained that a similar situation was prevailing in other districts also. At most of the places huge stocks were lying unlifted owing to shortage of storage space. The payment for the procured grain was also in arrears since the procuring agencies had no funds.

Punjab Arhtiya Association president Harjit Singh Sheru said that all the government procurement agencies had till date, not made any payment to the farmers for the purchases made. These agencies had not even paid the market fee and were pressing the arhtiyas for payment, assuring them that they would clear the payment on release of funds to them.

Singla demanded immediate government intervention and adequate arrangements for procurement, storage and lifting of purchased produce.

Singla said it was fortunate that weather had been favourable till now, but he cautioned that situation can critical in case the weather turns bad because of the huge stocks lying stacked in the open yards of the mandis all over the state.

The district managers of the procurement agencies were not available for comments nor was the Deputy Commissioner available.

According to official sources till yesterday a total of 60,473 tonne of paddy had been procured in the 96 mandis in the district. The breakup of the procurement was: private traders: 1,663 tonne, civil supplies 3,029 tonne, Markfed: 6,348, PUNSUP: 7,618, Warehousing Corporation: 5,058, Agro Industries Corporation: 6,380, and the Food Corporation of India: 556 tonne.

Meanwhile, Sangrur seems set to improve its record of last year. Wheat procurement was 9.2 lakh tonne last year, this year it hopes to procure 10 lakh tonne of wheat, if the brisk pace of wheat arrivals in the different mandis in the district is any indication.

As of date, a total of 27,699 tonne of wheat had been procured by different agencies and private traders in the district. A total of 234 procurement centres have been set up, of which 30 main centres have become operational.

Deputy Commissioner Anirrudh Tiwari said that a meeting of district officers of different procurement agencies was being held in his camp office on a daily basis. Sub-divisional officers had been appointed nodal officers to monitor and oversee procurement work, and it was being ensured that there was no backlog of wheat in the mandis and all the produce being brought to the mandis was procured every day. The administration had also made provision for enough storage space for the procured wheat. Tiwari said that till this date last year, there were no wheat arrivals in the district. This year's arrivals attributed to advance crop in the region. He said that peak arrivals would be during the next week.

Of the total arrivals in the district so far, the state had procured 757 tonne, PUNSUP 3,818 tonne, Markfed 6,225 tonne, Food Corporation of India 3,475 tonne, Warehousing Corporation 5,400 tonne, Agro Industries Corporation 6,664 tonne and private traders 1,360 tonne. While the government agencies had procured 96 per cent of the total arrivals, four per cent had been procured by private traders, Tiwari said. Patiala Deputy Commissioner Jasbir Singh Bir said that as on April 8, a total of 13,303 tonne of wheat had been procured in different mandis in the district. He said that it was being ensured that no procurement was made at a price lower than the government fixed support price of Rs 550 per quintal.

Bir said that in Patiala 96 mandis had been set up and government agencies were in business in full gear. Elaborate arrangements had been made to ensure that there was no harassment to the farmers coming to the mandis.