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.
The detection of two cases of Omicron, the latest variant of Covid-19, in Karnataka was not unexpected in view of the interconnected world that people live in, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, said on Thursday.
In a major reprieve to traders ahead of the assembly polls, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday decided to exempt about 1.50 lakh cases from assessment related to cases of 'C' form from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ahead of the next year's Punjab Assembly elections.
Stating that the BJP government should stop attempting to divide farmers even at this stage - two days after the three farm laws were repealed in the Parliament, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Wednesday on condemned the government's statement that it does not have data about farmers' death.
Leaked toxic Methyl IsoCyanate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide of India Ltd (UCIL) factory started affecting the residents of Madhya Pradesh capital city Bhopal, especially those residing in the southeast direction from the factory, around 2 a.m. on the intervening night of December 2 and 3 in 1984.
The Indian government, before taking any final decision on the resumption of international flight operations, is "closely monitoring" the situation emerging out of the detection and spread of coronavirus' Omicron variant.
