Chandigarh, April 11 (IANS) As the wheat arrivals surge across agrarian state Punjab, the total purchase of wheat has created a record in five years, officials said on Monday.
Government agencies have procured 4.3 lakh metric tons of wheat till April 10, against the earlier highest peak of 38,019 metric tons in 2018.
An official told IANS this year the government has ensured that minimum support price (MSP) payments of Rs 138 crore transferred directly into bank accounts of farmers, whereas the earlier high was Rs 6.5 crore in year 2017.
Terming the record-breaking figures a result of the good arrangements, he said the state government was committed to welfare of the farmers and would continue to take all possible steps to facilitate them.
The Central government has fixed the minimum support price of wheat at Rs 2,015 per quintal.
The government aims to purchase 132 lakh tonnes of wheat this season. The procurement of wheat, which began on April 1, will continue till May 31.
A 15-year-old boy allegedly killed his father by stabbing him with a pair of scissors after he was stopped from drinking liquor late Tuesday night in Prithvi Vihar in the city.
The first woman President of the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council, Darwesh Yadav, was shot dead in Agra Civil courts on Wednesday allegedly by her own colleague Manish Sharma, police said.
Satya Pal Malik said the problem of terrorists exists in Kashmir not only due to unemployment among youth, but also because politicians have been misleading the people for the past several decades.
