Badal has made a pitch for a Rs 300-crore package for his farmers, including the cotton ones. The issue has been referred to the Food Ministry which is expected to prepare a detailed note and submit it to the Prime Minister tomorrow.

The Food Ministry is under pressure to liberalise the norms for purchase of paddy to allow purchase of the crop from Punjab. The Punjab crop, like last year, has been damaged by the unseasonal rains and has excessive moisture content. As a result, apart from a higher content of broken grain, it is discoloured as well.

In June this year, the Food Ministry wrote to various states offering them last year's stock from Punjab. According to sources, all states haverefused to take this stock, stating that their millers were refusing to take rice with such high moisture content.

Outlining the damage caused by this year's unseasonal rain, Badal told Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee that even last year, the Government had relaxed the specifications of rice for this very reason. While the present tolerance limit, for instance, states that broken rice be allowed up to a maximum of 22 per cent, it was relaxed to 30 per cent last year. Similarly, while the norm for discoloured rice is usually around 3 per cent, it was relaxed to 13 per cent last year for both raw as well as parboiled rice. Badal has asked for a repeat relaxation in both yardsticks.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sompal told The Indian Express that in all likelihood the rice would have to be bought and the modalities decided by the Food Ministry. Sompal declined to comment on whether this would mean that FCI would have to bear further losses, and pointed out that it was difficult to arrive atthe figure right now since no one had any idea of how badly damaged the crop was at this point in time.

He said, however, that the crop just had to be bought. Badal told the Prime Minister that the heavy rains for 7 to 10 days had thrown the paddy procurement arrangements completely out of gear.

The state was expecting a bumper crop of 12 million tonnes this year, with a marketable surplus of 11 million as compared to 9.8 million last year. The rains had damaged not just the paddy stock lying in the mandis but also the grain of standing crops.

The situation had started improving after the first week of October, but following rains once again after October 15, the crop has got damaged again. Badal said that despite the best efforts of the state agencies, unsold stock of around 4 million tonnes of paddy are still in the fields and are bound to get damaged so badly that they shall not be purchased by state agencies because of their strict specifications.

Badal has asked that even if the stocks cannot bebought after the specifications are relaxed considerably, this should be purchased at the minimum support price, and the procuring agencies should be paid an `upgradation charge' of Rs 50 per quintal to bring the rice to FAO specifications.

Badal said the Prime Minister and the Union food minister gave a patient hearing to his team and assured him that the centre would take a decision in a day or so on the relief package for Punjab farmers.

The Chief Minister was accompanied at the meeting by state Food and Supplies Minister Madan Mohan Mittal, Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh and senior state government officials.

Union Minister for Food Surjit Singh Barnala, FCci Managing Director S.S. Dawra and Joint Secretary Food K.M. Sahni were also present during the discussion.