GIVING further vent to the prevailing politics on paddy procurement, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Vice-President Dr Raman Singh, while commenting on ‘Mera Dhan Mera Abhiman’ of Congress, asked what kind of a ‘abhiyan’ are they running when the farmers are weeping because of it.

 

Addressing the mediapersons during a media interaction, the BJP National Vice-President said that the farmers are suffering because of paddy procurement.

 

The former Chief Minister added that several farmers are committing suicide as the State Government has written off paddy acreage of farmers. The drive was delayed by one full month. Now, for 4-5 days the paddy procurement was stopped and it started again. Paddy is lying with the farmers’ and is getting destroyed. The State Government has failed to put in place a fool-proof procurement system and more than half the paddy is yet to be procured.

 

Dr Singh said that it would have been a matter of pride - ‘abhiman’, had the State Government procured a minimum 90 lakh MT paddy and allowed farmers to sell their paddy without any kind of glitches and harassment. What kind of ‘abhiman’ is it, when the State Government is paying after 50 days, even previous paddy procurement’s money is yet to be paid in full. Farmers are getting paid in full against paddy procurement in 15 months.

 

He said the farmer is tolerating all this and will never forget these atrocities.

Replying to a query that when he was Chief Minister he had written to he centre for allowing bonus payment, which is being raked by the Congress, Dr Singh said the Congress had promised to procure paddy at Rs 2,500 per quintal in its election manifesto along with payment of two years pending bonus. He said when promises are made by the Congress, it is its duty to fulfill instead of giving lame excuses.

 

Dr Singh said the state government is crying foul over gunny bags only to create a hindrance in paddy procurement. States like Punjab procure over 2 lakh MT of paddy and wheat but they never have any issues with gunny bags. He alleged that the state government here doesn’t follow procedures and then when things go out of hand they cry foul. Even during the previous BJP regime, we used to procure paddy and never encountered such problems. Actually they have failed to make necessary arrangements or management for the paddy procurement.

 

Dr Singh added that it will have held grounds had the State Government would have procured 90 lakh MT paddy. Answering a query on infrastructure development, the BJP National Vice President further alleged that the Chief Minister doesn’t know about infrastructure development.

In the last two years of Congress rule not a single proposal for development has been passed. Whatever development projects the Chief Minister is dedicating, all had commenced during the previous BJP regime. He said when he became Chief Minister in 2003, then there were only 1200 Kms of PMGSY roads apart from 30,000 Kms of roads in the whole state. During the 15 years tenure, this 30,000 Kms were expanded to over 60,000 Kms. At that time, even National Highways used to be murrum roads and roads used to remain closed for six months in a year. Today starting from Surguja to the far flung areas of Bastar region, vehicles are running non-stop 24x7 at full speed. The BJP regime had been the golden era so far as road constructions are concerned. During the BJP regime 11 major National Highway projects were completed. He said this government doesn’t even have the vision to think about infrastructure development. Forget about new roads, it would be very good if the state government allocated funds for annual repair.