State Congress president Bhupesh Baghel and leader of Opposition TS Singh Deo claimed that 22 lakh tonnes of paddy worth Rs 4,000 crore — lying in the open — got destroyed in the rain which lashed Chhattisgarh due to negligence of the ruling BJP Government in the State.
In a joint statement, both the leaders claimed that a third of the paddy purchased from the farmers by the State Government was stored in the open at various procurement centres of the State.
They claimed that the paddy stored in a large number of procurement centres got destroyed due to flooding of the centres following the rainfall.
Both the leaders alleged that it is a sad co-incidence that the Government is yet to distribute Rs 3,880 crore as bonus for the paddy produce to the farmers while more than Rs 4,000 crore worth of paddy has been destroyed in the rainfall.
Every year, rainfall is experienced during the paddy purchase season and in such a situation, the ruling Government is responsible for not preparing any ‘Action Plan’ to protect paddy purchased from farmers despite the Indian Meteorological Department issuing an early warning on possibility of rainfall in the State, they stated.
They stated that there was shortage of Tarpaulin to cover the paddy produce in many of the procurement centres right from the beginning of the paddy purchase season.
Both leaders claimed that paddy lying in the open in the yards of Primary Co-operative Committees in Raipur is 32 lakh quintal , Janjgir-Champa (15 lakh quintal), Mahasamund (27 lakh quintal), Rajnandgaon (12 lakh quintal), Bastar (6 lakh quintal), Dhamtari (9 lakh quintal), Kawardha (20 lakh quintal), Kanker (14 lakh quintal) , Sarguja (2 lakh quintal), Raigarh (31 lakh quintal) and Bilaspur (18 lakh quintal).