Centre allows Punjab to shift 12 lakh tonnes of old rice to UP
Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan announced this after a meeting with Punjab’s food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu to discuss the storage problem in the state.
The Centre on Tuesday allowed Punjab, which is facing storage problem, to move 12 lakh tonnes of surplus rice to Uttar Pradesh.
Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan announced this after a meeting with Punjab’s food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu to discuss the storage problem in the state.
“The state still has a rice stock of 38 lakh tonnes from the 2018-19 crop year and the shift of about 12 lakh tonnes of stock will ease the situation to some extent. UP and Haryana have storage space and foodgrains from Punjab can be kept there,” he told reporters.
In a statement, Ashu said he informed the Union minister that 200 lakh tonnes of foodgrains were stocked in the state godowns. He also said that around 30 lakh tonnes of grain purchased last year was lying in the open.