Acting on the directions of the Chief Minister, and in pursuance to the decision taken in meeting of the heads of all the Procurement Agencies in the morning today, Ravi Bhagat, Secretary Mandi Board today presented the action taken report on dewatering of Mandis following the heavy rains which lashed the State for the past two days.
Divulging the details in a meeting attended by senior officials of the Department of Food & Civil Supplies and all Procurement Agencies in the evening today, Ravi Bhagat stated that more than 2000 temporary and permanent Mandis in the State had been affected by the incessant rains. Out of these 40 Mandis had experienced extremely serious issues of waterlogging accompanied by mud and slush. Throughout the day motors had been pressed into action to drain out the water and special labour was engaged today to extensively undertake the task of mopping and drying the plinths in the Mandis.
Ravi said that as a result of these dedicated efforts, by 4 PM today, all Mandis in the State barring Five Mandis, namely Nabha, Bhawanigarh, Agol, Bhadson and Sauja, had been fully restored to their normal condition. He stated that work in these five Mandis was currently underway on a war footing and even these shall be fully operational by sunrise tomorrow.
Ravi also stated that advance arrangements had been made in all the Mandis and the paddy stock had been covered with tarpaulins. However, in many places the lower layers of paddy stacks were affected and Arhtiyas have been asked to unpack these and dry them at the earliest.
Secretary Food & Civil Supplies asked the MDs of all procurement agencies to expedite lifting in order to create additional space in the Mandis for drying of grains.
The meeting was also attended by Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Secretary Food & Civil Supplies, Ravinder Kaushik, MD PUNSUP, Varun Roojam, MD Markfed, Arshdeep Singh Thind, GM FCI Abhinav Trikha, Director Food & Civil Supplies and Yashanjit Singh, MD PSWC.
