Chandigarh, Oct 22 (IANS): Nearly 40 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured in Punjab this season, food and supplies officials said on Monday.

Government agencies and private millers have procured 39,53,655 tonnes of paddy in Punjab till Sunday, the officials said.

Payment worth Rs 3912.72 crore has been transferred to the accounts of arthiyas and farmers by the government, the officials added.

An official spokesman of the Punjab government said that out of the total procurement, government agencies procured 39,07,108 tonnes of paddy while 46,547 tonnes has been procured by private millers.

Paddy procurement started in the agrarian state on October 1 but the bulk of stocks started coming after October 10.

The Central government had recently sanctioned a Cash Credit Limit (CCL) amount of Rs 29,695.40 crore for procurement of paddy in the kharif marketing season 2018-19.

The Punjab government had raised a demand of Rs 40,300 crore for the paddy procurement this season.

It has made arrangements for a bumper procurement of the 200 lakh tonnes of paddy this season.

In 2017-18, a total of 179.34 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured, of which 176.61 lakh tonnes was done by government agencies.