CHANDIGARH: The Punjab has received  58.90 lakh Metric tones (MT) of wheat upto 29th April, 2007 out of which 90.5% wheat 53.32 lakh MT  that arrived in the Mandies of the state was procured by the government agencies only.

This was disclosed here Monday by Tejinder Kaur, Principal Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Punjab.

She said that the department was monitoring the procurement process round the clock to avoid any type of harassment to the farmers either at the hands of the officials of various procurement agencies or commission agents. She said that the farmers were  also getting their due payments well within time.

Giving agency wise details of the procurement, she said that PUNGRAIN, MARKFED, PUNSUP, PSWC and PAIC all the five state government agencies had procured 10,55425 MT, 12,21569 MT, 11,70714 MT, 6,51559 MT and 6,21821 MT of wheat respectively till 29 th April,2007, that was 88.5% of the total wheat procured by the Government. She also informed that 6,11734 MT of wheat i.e. 11.5% of the total government procurement was procured by FCI till 29th April 2007, whereas 5,57215 MT of wheat was procured by the traders.