Punjab Cabinet raised the procurement of paddy for rice shellers in the border areas, while constituting a 3-member committee to ensure minimum payment to labourers in the mandis. CM Amarinder Singh also directed officials to take adequate steps to prevent any disruption of paddy procurement by the banned truck unions. The cabinet also approved the Custom Milling Policy for kharif marketing season (KMS) 2017-18 for getting the procured paddy milled through approximately 3,600 rice mills situated across the state. The scheme for Custom Milling of Kharif 2017-18 paddy would be followed by all the procuring agencies – PUNGRAIN, MARKFED, PUNSUP, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation, Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Rice Millers/their legal heirs. The state expected to procure 165.74 Lakh MTs of paddy and the target was to complete the Custom Milling of Paddy, thereby delivering the full quota of rice to Food Corporation of India by March 31, 2018. As per the customs milling policy, which becomes applicable with the start of the marketing season on October 1, paddy arriving in the mandis shall be procured by the government agencies as per the specification laid down by the Government of India. The policy provides for penalisation of millers who refuses to accept the allotted custom milling work or to lift/accept the allotted paddy from the agency, with his being blacklisted for three years.