BHUBANESWAR: A day after Cooperation Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak dismissed allegations of irregularities in paddy procurement, the BJP on Tuesday alleged the BJD was collecting Rs 1,000 crore for party funds every year from the decentralised procurement.
Terming this an organised loot by a big syndicate of officials of Agriculture, Cooperation, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare and rice millers, state BJP spokesperson Manoj Mohapatra told a media conference here that 5 to 6 kg of paddy are deducted from each quintal of paddy purchased from farmers under minimum support price. Locally called as katni chatni, the illegal practice has been going on ever since the state government undertook the decentralised paddy procurement.
The state government procured about 77 lakh tonnes of paddy in the last kharif season. The farmers lost more than Rs 760 crore with 5 kg cut per quintal, he alleged. The state government has no business in entering the paddy procurement business after the Orissa High Court directed the FCI to buy paddy directly from the farmers.“The state government is procuring paddy but the rice millers are controlling the mandis,” he alleged.