The BJP walked out of the Chhattisgarh Assembly on the third day of the winter session on Wednesday over custom milling of the stored paddy and the loss to exchequer due to decay in storage.
During Question Hour, BJP member Rajnish Kumar Singh sought details from the Food and Civil Supplies Minister over the district-wise status of balance paddy for last fiscal year which has not been milled.
If not lifted, he wanted to know what action will be initiated against the officials.
Minister Amarjeet Bhagat said in his reply that for fiscal 2019-20 in primary societies no balance exists but has been kept in storage centres across the state. Around 4.15 lakh tonnes of paddy remains, out of which 80,000 tonnes more have been lifted.
As the process is underway, the final status will be available on December 31, he said.
He blamed Covid-19, lockdown, longer monsoon and the Centre's sanction for the delay in milling.
BJP's Ajay Chandrakar asked how the government was providing different figures for paddy quantity in response to two questions.
Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik said he had visited the storage centre and knows the status of stored paddy which has decayed. He said a probe panel of two ruling party and one opposition members can be constituted to investigate this.
This created a ruckus, with the BJP talking about the loss to the state exchequer and the treasury benches raising the issue of losses during BJP rule. Amid chaos, the opposition walked out.