The Centre has agreed to run special trains for lifting wheat and rice stocks lying in Punjab, chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann said after a meeting with Union food and public distribution minister Pralhad Joshi in New Delhi on Thursday. The Punjab government said the decision is expected to ease pressure on storage capacity as the state moves through the 2026-27 rabi procurement season.
According to the state government, around 155 lakh metric tonnes of grain stock is awaiting lifting from Punjab. Mann said quicker evacuation is necessary because fresh wheat arrivals are picking up even as storage space remains constrained.
Punjab has said its covered storage system is close to capacity. The state government put existing stocks at 180.88 lakh metric tonnes, comprising 151.20 lakh metric tonnes of rice and 29.67 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, against an overall covered storage capacity of about 183 lakh metric tonnes, including silos. It said this leaves limited room for additional procurement at a time when wheat purchases in the current season are expected to reach 130-132 lakh metric tonnes.
The state has argued that the pace of evacuation in recent months has not matched procurement needs. Mann said average lifting of wheat and rice had remained around 5 lakh metric tonnes a month, and sought a faster drawdown to avoid a storage bottleneck during the marketing season. He said the state had asked that monthly lifting be increased significantly so that procurement and storage operations can continue without disruption.
The meeting also covered the financing structure used for procurement. Punjab said cash credit required for the purchase of grain is arranged through a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India, and that the rate charged to the state is higher than the rate recoverable from the Centre. Mann said the gap creates an avoidable financial burden on Punjab during each procurement season and called for the applicable rate to be aligned with the rate allowed in central cost calculations.
Another issue raised by the state was the release of about ₹9,000 crore under the Rural Development Fund. Punjab has maintained that these dues are required for mandi-linked infrastructure, including roads, repairs and modernisation of procurement facilities. Mann said he had been told that a secretary-level meeting would be convened to work out a mechanism for the release of the funds.
The chief minister also sought central intervention on weather-related crop damage. He said hailstorm had affected wheat in parts of the state and asked the Centre to send a team for an assessment so that compensation-related decisions could be taken on the basis of an official review.
Mann further raised demands linked to commission agents, or arhatiyas, saying the revision in procurement commission announced by the Centre remained below what was being sought by stakeholders in Punjab. He said the issue continues to be a point of dissatisfaction in the procurement chain. The state also flagged the withholding of a portion of mandi labour charges over EPF-related concerns and requested that the Centre consider a release mechanism based on undertakings, similar to the process followed by state agencies.
Punjab, one of the country’s largest contributors to the central foodgrain pool, has repeatedly flagged the operational strain caused by high grain stocks remaining parked in the state ahead of procurement cycles. The latest meeting indicates that the state is seeking both immediate relief on storage and movement, and structural changes in funding and procurement-linked financial terms.
