Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Tuesday said that under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, payments of more than Rs  2600 crore have been made to the farmers’ accounts till Tuesday (April 20).

“The payments worth Rs 1,141 crore were cleared till yesterday (Monday), Rs 1,500 crore was cleared till today (Tuesday), and payments worth a total ofRs 4,200 crore would be cleared by tomorrow (Wednesday),” he said.

Ashu assured the farmers that every single grain produced by them would be procured by the Punjab Government. He said that 54 lakh MT of wheat has arrived in mandis of the state, out of which 50 lakh MT has already been procured and more than 20 lakh MT has already been lifted by various government agencies.

He also assured that both procurement as well as lifting would be speed up in coming days.

On the issue of bardana (storage bags), Ashu said that due to COVID-19 and elections in West Bengal, many of the jute mills are shut, leading to shortage of jute bags across the country. “We have even taken up this issue with Jute Commissioner of India, but he failed to help the State. There was some shortage of bardana initially, but now the matter has been resolved. On April 12, 2021, the Government of India has allowed the State Government for the use of used bardana by arhtiyas, for which Rs 41.90 per bag has been fixed,” he added.

Ashu urged leaders across political parties to not politicize the issue as there is no shortage of bardana in the State now. He also appealed to them to either contact him or District Administration or his Department in case there is any problem to the farmers in mandis and assured that all problems would be resolved on priority basis.