The arrest and resignation as minister of Laljit Singh Bhullar, over abetment of suicide charges, has brought into focus the coveted foodgrain storage business in Punjab, worth over Rs 2,000 crore annually.Bhullar, who was asked to resign as Transport and Jails Minister, is accused of pressuring Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) official Gagandeep Singh Randhawa over allotment of tenders to build storage capacity, forcing him allegedly to commit suicide.Punjab has a total covered storage capacity of 173 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrains, including facilities owned by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), state agencies, and private players. The FCI pays rent and preservation charges of about Rs 107 per MT per month to PSWC, and around Rs 85 for newer godowns.“Taking an average rent of Rs 100 per MT per month, the total business works out to roughly Rs 2,076 crore annually,” a source in PSWC told The Indian Express.Bhullar was allegedly pressuring Randhawa to award a tender for the construction of a grain warehouse to his father, Sukhdev Singh. A retired Punjab Agriculture Development Bank employee, Sukhdev is now an arhtiya (commission agent for procuring foodgrains) and had recently won a tender for constructing storage capacity of 20,000 MT, which would have earned him approximately Rs 2.4 crore annually.“However, he wanted to secure tenders for an additional 30,000 MT,” the source added. Gagandeep Singh Randhawa’s widow Upinder Kaur addresses the media, along with her children, on Wednesday. (Express photo by Rana Simranjit Singh)To qualify for a tender to make storage capacity, one needs to have land in one’s name. The process is stringent, and many applicants are rejected at the preliminary stage, an official said.Story continues below this ad“FCI norms require that godowns not be located near insect-infested land, should be close to a railway station, away from educational institutions, and have good road connectivity, among other criteria. Applications that meet preliminary conditions are screened by a State Level Committee, followed by FCI clearance. They are then sent to a High-Level Committee of the Government of India for final approval.”For the 30,000 MT of storage capacity that Sukdhev had bid for, Baba Naga Agri Private Ltd was declared ‘L1’, meaning it would be the first one to be made an offer by the FCI. This was because Sukhdev’s land was farther from the railway head, compared to Baba Naga’s land. Sukhdev had complained but he had to forfeit the tender due to this.Randhawa had no role in the tendering process, the official pointed out.Bhullar allegedly manhandled Randhawa in the presence of Sukhdev to pressure him for the tender. In letters purportedly written by him to Tarn Taran Deputy Commissioner Rahul and PSWC Managing Director Gautam Jain – made public by Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia – Randhawa alleged the same.Story continues below this adAs per the official, tenders had opened up as, in the last fiscal year, the FCI had asked the Punjab government to create storage capacity of 46 lakh MT. “Tenders had so far been awarded for only 2-3 lakh MT. Advertisements had been put out for around 200 tenders,” the source said.Punjab procures wheat and paddy for the central pool. Foodgrains worth Rs 80,000 crore were procured in the state in the 2025-26 fiscal, with the state seeing production of 119.13 lakh MT of wheat and 1.54 lakh MT of paddy.The FCI handles procurement and pays rent for storage as it does not have sufficient capacity of its own. It does not directly participate in the tendering process. Instead, state agencies such as PSWC, Markfed and PUNGRAIN award tenders on its behalf.Family members and friends say Randhawa, a father of three, had spent over a decade with PSWC, joining as a Warehouse Manager in 2011 after securing top rank in an eligibility test. A Ph.D, he was promoted to District Manager in 2020-2021, and held charge of four districts at one time.Story continues below this ad“His working style was very clean and professional. He was a stickler for rules and would not allow any wrong. He also tried to balance the interests of farmers and the government,” says colleague Harpreet Singh Gill.No one had any bad words to say about Randhawa, Gill adds, saying the alleged pressure put by the former minister would have hurt him. “He was a genuine person… brave, but he must have been deeply concerned about his family and his reputation.”Earlier, with a row building up over Randhawa’s death, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had asked Bhullar to resign. In a Facebook post, Bhullar said the allegations against him were “completely baseless and false”, but that he was resigning as “our party always stands with the truth”. “I want the allegations made against me to be investigated properly.”He was arrested on March 23.Senior leaders including Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress, the Akali Dal’s Majithia and BJP Punjab president Sunil Jakhar were present at Randhawa’s cremation Tuesday.Story continues below this adBajwa said, “It is shocking that an official lost his life due to the greed of a minister’s father. We have sought a CBI probe. We know that police are working under the influence of the Aam Aadmi Party government.”Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said he is ready for a CBI probe if sought by all the parties.