In a move to facilitate smooth lifting of paddy from the mandis, the Punjab government has amended the provisions of paddy procurement policy to enhance the eligibility quota of the rice mills by 500 MT of paddy per mill. Food and civil supplies department, Punjab DS Grewal on Tuesday said, now a rice mill with an installed capacity of 1 MT would be allotted 3,000 MT of free paddy instead of earlier quota of 2,500 MT.
Similarly, rice mills with an installed capacity of 2 MT would now be eligible to lift 4,500 MT of free paddy against the earlier allotted quota of 4,000 MT. The amended procurement policy will be applicable to Bathinda, Mansa, Sangrur, Barnala, Moga, Faridkot and Muktsar.
The step will address heavy arrival due to bumper crop this season besides taking care of the short fall of milling capacity caused by 271 rice mills declared defaulter by the Food Corporation of India.