Paddy dampened due to Govt’s laxity: Cong

Raipur, June 20, 2012

Congress has held the government responsible for dampening of huge stocks of paddy in monsoon showers. “This is strange. The government should have taken measures to safely store large amount of paddy being stocked in open in godowns and procurement centres beforehand,” said Congress spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi on Thursday.

“The monsoon reached the state a couple of days back. Still, 60 lakh tonne of paddy has been stocked in open. The government stopped paddy procurement about three months back but surprisingly it did not take interest in making safety arrangements for paddy stocks during monsoon,” Trivedi said.

He informed that highest amount paddy stocks in open are in Bilaspur, i.e. 13.9 lakh “tonne. Similarly, open paddy stock in Rajnandgaon is 8.32 lakh tonne, Raigarh – 8.23 lakh tonne, Ambikapur – 4.66 lakh tonne, Mungeli – 4 lakh tonne, Raipur – 3.86 lakh tonne, Durg – 2.19 lakh tonne, Surajpur – 2 lakh tonne, Bemetara – 1.59 lakh tonne and Balod – 1.14 lakh tonne,” he said.

“Rainwater has accumulated around paddy stocks in 63 procurement centres as Markfed did not make any arrangement for proper drainage of water. The Markfed has not even put the cap cover on paddy stocks. Interestingly, Markfed spent huge fund on pretext of digging drains around the paddy stocks but drains are still on papers while the fund went in the pockets of corrupts,” he said.

He alleged that Markfed took fake certificates about safety of paddy stocks from procurement centres and rubbed its hands from the responsibility.

Govt insensitive: Jogi

Senior Congress legislator Ajit Jogi termed the government insensitive over dampening of paddy stocks.

“This is sheer disregard to the food grains. Traditionally, people of Chhattisgarh offer prayers to food grains and keep them safely. However, the government has left huge stocks of paddy in open to dampen and rot,” he said.

“If the government is unable to keep the paddy stocks safe then it must distribute the paddy to the poor farmers free-of-cost. At least the paddy will not rot and reach to the deserving hands who know how to keep the food grains safe,” Jogi said.