The Congress on Wednesday accused the ruling BJP Government in Chhattisgarh of diverting the paddy price issue and alleged that it did not want to keep the promise it had made to the people during the recently held Assembly elections.
Criticising the statement made by senior Minister Ajay Chandrakar, State BJP vice president Sachidanand Upasane and Sanjay Srivastav, the Congress said the BJP had plunged into a crisis over the issue of minimum support price of paddy. Congress vice presidents Baijnath Chandrakar, general secretary Premsai Singh, lekhram Sahu, Chandrabhan Barmate, and spokesman Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said the leaders of BJP had promised that a minimum support price of Rs 2400 per 100 kg of paddy would be paid to the farmers. Now with the election was over, the Chief Minister wrote a letter to the Prime Minister to play a political game. Were they (the BJP) not aware that it came under the Central Government, the Congress leaders questioned.
If the BJP was aware of this fact, why it misguided the people by not mentioning the matter in their party manifesto, they said. It was seer their frustration of the BJP leaders that they had been targeting State Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel over the issue. The Congress leaders said Baghel did no wrong by exposing the truth.
Chhattisgarh farmers cannot forget that during the five years of NDA regime, from 1990-2004 the minimum support price of paddy was enhanced only by Rs 60 where as during the UPA rule, it went up by 450 rupees, the leaders said. This showed the commitment of the Congress towards the interest of the farmers. The people of Chhattisgarh will not tolerate such excuses, they said.