Punjab government issues notification for fixing the date of paddy transplantation as June 15

Chandigarh, May 21, 2014: On the direction of the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the state agriculture department has issued a notification fixing the date of paddy transplantation as June 15.

Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that the notification stipulated that no farmer would transplant non-basmati variety of paddy and Basmati variety of paddy before June 15 and July 5 respectively in any agriculture year.

The spokesperson further said that the Chief Minister had asked the Financial Commissioner Development (FCD) to direct all the field officers across the state to ensure the implementation of the order in letter and spirit.

It may be recalled that the Punjab government had passed the “Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act” in 2009 under which for the first time, the date of transplantation of paddy was fixed as June 10 with a view to save precious natural resource of water in the State. Pertinently, the declining rate of underground water in the Punjab has been controlled after the passing this legislation, which mandated not to transplant paddy before June 10 and now further delay of five days would help in saving the precious ground water.