Bhopal, May 9 The Madhya Pradesh government on Saturday announced the extension of wheat procurement at Minimum Support Price from May 9 to May 23, saying the decision was taken in the interest of farmers and to ensure that all produce arriving at procurement centres is purchased smoothly.
In an official statement, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Govind Singh Rajput said that 60.7 lakh metric tonnes of wheat have so far been procured from 9.78 lakh farmers across the state.
The minister said procurement operations are conducted 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday.
“On May 9 alone, 2.79 lakh metric tonnes of wheat were purchased from 31,629 farmers at procurement centres across Madhya Pradesh,” he stated.
According to the statement, the government has extended the time for generating weighing slips from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. to reduce waiting time for farmers.
The deadline for issuing payment vouchers has also been extended till 12 midnight.
The state government has also increased the number of weighing scales at procurement centres from four to six.
District administrations have been authorised to further increase the number of weighing scales depending on the rush of farmers.
Rajput said the capacity and number of National Informatics Centre servers have also been increased to manage the higher online workload during the procurement season.
The Food Department is monitoring procurement activities every hour to ensure smooth operations and timely issue resolution.
“Payments amounting to Rs 11,610 crore have already been transferred directly into the bank accounts of farmers,” the minister said.
Farmers are being paid Rs 2,625 per quintal for wheat procured under the Minimum Support Price scheme, including the Centre’s Minimum Support Price of Rs 2,585 per quintal and a Rs 40 bonus provided by the state government.
--IANS
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