DW BUREAU During the ongoing Rabi season, the state-owned procurement agency Markfed has been leading Ludhiana in terms of clearing 95 percent payments to the farmers who sold their grains to it. As per the details gathered from the Food, Civil and Supply department, Markfed has paid Rs 339.06 crore to the farmers against the amount of Rs 355.73 crore of procured Wheat till April 28. The Pungrain and Punsup, both state procurement agencies have also cleared 94 percent of payments. Pungrain and Punsup have so far paid Rs 373.78 crore and Rs 304.59 against the cost of purchased wheat i.e. Rs 399.13 crore and Rs 325.40 crore respectively. Further, another Punjab's food grain agency Punjab State Warehousing Corporation has also made 90 percent payments of procured wheat to the farmers. Against the amount of Rs 187.14 crore, it has paid Rs 168.76 crore to the peasantry. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said that district administration has till so far procured 813993 metric ton of wheat in the various grain markets/purchase centres of Ludhiana. He said that the administration has been expecting the arrival of 9 lakh MT wheat during the ongoing season. The Deputy Commissioner said that since the starting of procurement of grains in the district 813993 metric ton wheat has arrived in the markets across the district out of which 813993 metric ton has been purchased by the various agencies. Sharma said that 67 percent of the procured stock has been lifted already. He said that so far payment worth Rs 1290.21 crore has been made to the farmers. Meanwhile, on Thursday, teams of the Food Supply department led by DFSC Sukhwinder Singh Gill took stock of the arrangements. (editor@dailyworld.in)