The Opposition Congress on Monday urged the State Government to buy chana (gram) from the farmers at appropriate price instead of procuring it from outside.
Expressing concern over the exploitation of chana growers by the middlemen who were allegedly buying it from them at very low price, State Congress media department chairman Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said the Government must take steps to stop such exploitation. Trivedi said it was the chana which the farmers of Chhattisgarh produce in large scale after paddy. But unfortunately the BJP Government had been buying it from other States at Rs 43 per kilogram.
The Government had been not buying it from the State farmers even though it was available at a much lower price of Rs 31 per kilogram, the minimum support price fixed by the Central Government on chana, he said. He alleged that the Government had been buying chana from the middlemen of Uttar Pradesh.
Because of the apathy of the Government the State farmers were forced to sale their chana to middle men at Rs 1800-2000 per quintal. The same middlemen have been procuring the chana from the local farmers and were selling it to the Government at higher prices, he alleged. Without the involvement of high level officials and political patronage, such thing would never happen, he alleged.
Accusing the Government of backtracking from the promises it made before the Assembly election, Trivedi said the farmers were assured that they would be paid Rs 2400 per quintal of paddy but that was never implemented. Similarly the farmers are also not able to get right prices for their tomatoes in many places, he pointed out.