Minister refutes AIADMK charge, says TN govt procured 1.96 cr MT paddy in 54 months

Dindigul (Tamil Nadu), Oct 31 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Food and Civil Supplies Minister R Sakkarapani has refuted the opposition AIADMK's charge on meagre paddy procurement and said the state government procured 1.96 crore metric tonnes of paddy in 54 months.

Dismissing AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s accusations as "lies", he said the leader of the Opposition was providing false information on the paddy procurement scenario.

He was giving the impression as if only during the previous AIADMK rule, the food grain was procured from the farmers in large quantities, the Minister said.

"During the decade of AIADMK rule, the government had procured only 1.80 crore MT of paddy but from 2021, when the DMK came to power, to this date, the state government has procured 1.96 crore MT of paddy,” Sakkarapani told reporters here on Friday.

Also, he asserted that Palaniswami had said that the Centre had granted permission to procure paddy from August 18. “We asked him for the circular issued by the Union Government, but we have not received a response so far from him," Sakkarapani said and accused the former chief minister of spreading a false information campaign.

Sakkarapani, who represented the Oddanchatram constituency in Dindigul district, further said that paddy was being procured from 183 direct procurement centres (DPCs) across Tamil Nadu that functioned even on Sundays for the benefit of farmers.

"In fact, there has been a surplus paddy harvest in various places in Tamil Nadu. We are currently paying higher rates than what was given during the previous AIADMK rule,” the Minister added.

After visiting the rain-hit districts where paddy crop was submerged, recently, Palaniswami alleged that it was a "tearful" Diwali for farmers as the harvested paddy remained only to get ruined due to the rain as it was not procured on time. PTI JSP JSP ADB