Paddy Politics Heats Up in Chhattisgarh Ahead of Polls

Raipur: A minister in the Bhupesh Baghel government on Thursday declared that farmers would get a price of Rs 3,600 for a quintal of paddy if Congress returned to power in Chhattisgarh in the year-end assembly elections, triggering a political row here.

State parliamentary affairs minister Ravindra Choubey, who is also spokesman of the Chhattisgarh government, said that the paddy procurement price would increase to Rs 3,600 per quintal in the next year, considering the rate of increase of minimum support price (MSP) of paddy.

The effective paddy procurement price in Chhattisgarh may increase by around 30 percent next year considering the rate of hike in the MSP of paddy and consequent increase in bonus on the procured paddy, he said.

Chhattisgarh government has been giving a bonus of Rs 6,00 per quintal of paddy in addition to the MSP to the farmers while procuring paddy from them.

Chhattisgarh is the only state in the country which procures paddy directly from the farmers and sells them to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), as per the requirement of the Centre.

The state government is currently procuring paddy from the farmers at Rs 2,640 per quintal which included a bonus of Rs 6,00.

Congress had made a promise to increase the paddy procurement price to Rs 2,500 before the 2018 assembly elections.

The bonus amount is given by the Bhupesh Baghel government under the Rajiv Kisan Nyay Yojana scheme under which an incentive of Rs 9,000 per acre was given to the beneficiary farmers.

The state government procures 15 quintals of paddy per acre from the farmers.

The paddy procurement price has increased to Rs 2,640 per quintal (including the bonus of Rs 6,00 per quintal) in the current Kharif season following an increase in the MSP of paddy to Rs 2040 per quintal by the Centre.

The farmers’ wing of BJP on Thursday contested Mr Choubey’s claim of increasing the paddy procurement price to Rs 3,600 per quintal if Congress returned to power in the polls, calling it ‘purely hypothetical and misleading’.

“The Centre has purchased 62 lakh tonnes of paddy from Chhattisgarh last year and is going to procure 86.5 lakh tonnes of paddy this year. That means, the state government is only paying the bonus, whereas the Centre is purchasing the paddy at MSP”, senior BJP leader and former minister Brij Mohan Agrawal has earlier said.

The state government procures paddy from around 26 lakh farmers in the state in the Kharif season, who greatly influence the outcome in the assembly polls in Chhattisgarh.