Pungrain Leads in Paddy procurement

Chandigarh November 8, 2008

Pungrain the official agency was leading the procurement operations by procuring over 9 lac tonnes paddy this year more than last year. It has procured 3485629 tonnes of paddy (29.9%) against 2590103 tonnes procured last year on this date.

Six government agencies and millers procured over 12642867 tonnes of paddy on Friday.

An official spokesman today said that PUNGRAIN procured 3485629 tonnes of paddy (29.9%) whereas MARKFED procured 2675170 tonnes of paddy (22.9%). PUNSUP procured 2630023 tonnes of paddy (22.5%) whereas Punjab State Warehousing Corporation procured 1452293 tonnes of paddy (12.4%) besides 1223365 tonnes of paddy (10.5%) procured by Punjab Agro. The Central Government Agency FCI procured only 201953 tonnes of paddy (1.7%) against the target of 10% procurement given to it. The Millers procured 974434 tonnes of paddy (7.7 %) by Tuesday.

Ludhiana district was leading in procurement with 1567331 followed bySangrur district was leading in procurement with 1425566 tonnes, Ferozepur 1200321 tonnes.

The spokesman said that lifting of procured paddy from the mandis has started showing positive results with PUNGRAIN (97.9%), MARKFED (96%), PUNSUP (98.2), PSWC (98%), PUNJAB AGRO (99.2%) and FCI (100.4%) showing substantial improvement.

Six government agencies have paid over Rs 9337.95 crores crores for paddy procured by agencies current Kharif Marketing Season. The spokesman said that farmers of the State are being made payment of paddy procured by the government agencies within 48 hours of lifting of paddy from the procurement centres.

The Punjab Food Supply had setup 1622 procurement centres throughout the state to ensure smooth procurement of paddy.

17 mediation and conciliation centres established in Punjab & Haryana

Chandigarh November 8, 2008

Mediation and conciliation centres could be the best form to settle the disputes and to reduce the pendency of the court cases.

Expressing these views while inaugurating 17 mediation and conciliation centres in nine districts of Haryana and eight districts of Punjab through video conferencing. Hon'ble Mr. Justice S.B Sinha Judge of Supreme Court of India said his inaugural address that Mediation was a voluntary non binding process in which an impartial and neutral mediators assists the parties in the reaching an agreement. A mediator does not impose a solution but create conducive and involvement in which parties could resolve their entire disputes. He said the biggest challenge Indian judiciary was facing today was large number of cases. He said about three crore cases were pending in the courts of the country.

Mr. Justice Sinha said increasing the numbers of Judges was on solution to reduce the pendency of the cases but much more was needed to be done to achieve good results and to reduce the pendency of the cases. These mediation and conciliation would help in saving loss of time, money, lost of health and peace of mind.

Speaking on the occasion Hon'ble Mr. justice T.S. Thakur Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court we must adopt and promote the mechanism of mediation and conciliation. He said that in 1955 when the court was shifted from Shimla the strength of Judges was eight and pendency of the cases were 6,356 but today pendency increase 30 times. Mr. Justice Thakur said out of 17 mediation and conciliation centres today dedicated to the services of the people 9 districts were from Haryana and Eight Districts of the Punjab where these centres were setup under the guidance of Hon'ble Punjab & Haryana High Court and under the aegis of Punjab Legal Services Authority include Amrtisar, Ferozepur, Jalandhar, Hashiarpur, Ludhiana, Moga, Patiala and Sangrur. While nine districts of Haryana were Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hisar, Jind, Karnal, Kurkushetra, Riwari, Rohtak and Sonipat. Earlier he also inaugurated a Lok Adalat.

Who were present on the occasion included sitting Judges of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, Advocate Generals, Advocates & former Judges which include Mr. Justice Ajit Singh Bains and Mrs. Justice Bakhshish Kaur.