Immediately after assuming charge as Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CGPCC) president, Bhupesh Baghel on Monday hit out at the ruling BJP Government over the paddy procurement on support price issue.
In a letter written to Chief Minister Raman Singh, the CGPCC chief demanded immediate payment of support price and bonus on paddy being procured in the State as promised in the BJP’s Assembly poll manifesto. Baghel, while addressing a news conference at the State Congress headquarters ‘Congress Bhawan’ here, said that paddy cultivators were facing unnecessary problems in the name of registration.
He claimed that paddy arrivals were piling up on the premises of co-operative societies in the absence of being lifted as part of the paddy procurement drive. “Paddy procurement in several centres was not being carried out for the past two to three days. The registration of farmers for paddy procurement that was done earlier was faulty because of which thousands of them had not been able to sell their paddy now,” Baghel said. He alleged that the Chief Minister had not exactly pointed out when he would distribute the bonus on paddy but instead has written a letter to the Central Government for raising the support price of paddy to Rs 2,100 per quintal. “I have written a letter to the CM reminding him of the promises that he had made during the Assembly polls,” Baghel said.
Congress MlA from Raipur Rural, Satyanarayan Sharma, while speaking on the occasion, said that it has been observed that registration of several farmers has been cancelled which amounted to being ‘anti-farmer’. “I want to ask the Government why their (farmers’) registration was cancelled and if it happened why it is not being renewed,” Sharma questioned, adding “the BJP is working with the policy of throwing ball in the court of the Central government which is wrong.”
Dhanendra Sahu, Congress MlA from Abhanpur said, “This year due to bad weather conditions, huge damage was done to crops. The farmers of the State were hopeful that whichever party forms the Government the compensation for damaged crops would be given. However, the Chief Minister has so far not uttered a word over the issue. We would raise it during State Assembly sessions.”
To a query over letter written by the Chief Minister to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over offering of the new support price on the paddy, the CGPCC president said, “The BJP in its poll manifesto had promised of increasing support price on paddy. So the party must fulfill its promises.” To a question on assigning posts to State party leaders in the Congress’ State Working Committee, Baghel made it clear that the new working body would be formed after discussions are held with senior party leaders.