Chhattisgarh assembly: Cong alleges irregularities in paddy procurement; BJP govt refutes claims

Raipur, Dec 16 (PTI) On the first day of the Winter Session of the Chhattisgarh assembly on Monday, the Congress slammed the BJP government for alleged irregularities in paddy procurement.

Raising the issue in Zero Hour, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel moved an adjournment motion notice seeking a discussion on ongoing paddy procurement from farmers.

Speaker Raman Singh allowed a discussion on the admissibility of the adjournment motion notice.

Taking part in the discussion, Congress Leader of Opposition Charan Das Mahant and Baghel claimed the Vishnu Deo Sai government had failed to properly procure paddy from farmers at support price in the Kharif marketing year 2024-25.

The opposition party leaders said there were 27.78 lakh registered farmers but only 50 lakh metric tonnes of paddy had been purchased from just 10.66 lakh farmers till December 15.

The procured paddy is neither being lifted by rice millers for custom milling nor is it being sent to storage centres, while procurement has been stopped at several centres, these leaders said.

Rice millers, society managers, computer operators, transporters and farmers are dissatisfied with the government, they alleged.

The state government had promised procurement of 21 quintals paddy per acre and payment of Rs 3100 per quintal as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantee but only support price of Rs 2300 per quintal is being paid, the Congress leaders said.

"Most of the new jute sacks provided for packing paddy are substandard. Jute sacks should have an average weight of 580 grams, but bags weighing 480 grams have been given at the paddy procurement centres," they added.

In his reply, Cooperative Minister Kedar Kashyap said paddy procurement is being done through 2,739 paddy centres from November 14 and 50.02 lakh tonnes of paddy have been procured from 10.66 lakh farmers as of December 15.

"Farmers have been paid Rs 10,485 crore against paddy procurement. As of now, 3.69 lakh tonnes have been lifted by transporters and 1.04 lakh tonnes by rice millers, thus a total of 4.73 lakh tonnes of paddy has been lifted. A total of 45.29 lakh tonnes of paddy has been kept in the procurement centres and lifting of these is in progress," he said.

In the Kharif year 2024-25, a total of 68 paddy storage centres have been established by the Marketing Federation, the minister said.

After the minister spoke, Speaker Raman Singh rejected the motion.

Congress MLAs then staged a walk out from the House saying they were dissatisfied with the government's reply. PTI TKP BNM