New Delhi/Chandigarh, April 11 -- Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann met Union food and public distribution minister Pralhad Joshi in New Delhi on Friday and pressed for resolution of structural issues burdening Punjab, including higher cash credit interest rates, Rs.9,000 crore pending under the rural development fund (RDF), compensation for hailstorm-hit crops, and long-pending demands of arhtiyas. He said the Union minister has assured that a secretary-level meeting will soon be held to resolve the matter. He also claimed that the Centre has agreed to run special trains to lift 155 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains lying in Punjab and ease the state's acute storage crisis ahead of the rabi marketing season. Flagging shortage of storage space, Mann said that 180.88 LMT of food grains (151.20 LMT rice and 29.67 LMT wheat) are already stored in the state's covered godowns, whereas the total available covered storage capacity is approximately 183 LMT (173 LMT covered godowns + 10 LMT wheat silos). As a result, only 0.50 LMT covered space is available for rice and 1.75 LMT silo space for wheat. Highlighting the existing stock burden, the CM stated, "Out of the previous year's wheat stock of 38 LMT, about 8.71 LMT is already lying in CAP or open storage in the state, which has led to a shortage of scientific storage space, and approximately 40 LMT of wheat will have to be stored in suboptimal conditions." Mann said at least 12 lakh metric tonnes each of wheat and rice be moved every month, or alternatively arrangements such as enhanced distribution of food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) be made, as was done during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially considering the hardships faced by the public amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia." Raising another issue, Mann said, "Funds for procurement are arranged through a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India, as authorised by the Reserve Bank of India."...