BJP protests against govt over slow paddy procurement

The Bihar Legislative Assembly today failed to transact business in the first half due to strong protest by BJP over slow pace of paddy procurement in the state and government allegedly running away from discussion over the issue in the House.
As the House sat for the day, Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav rose from his seat and asked Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary to take up the adjournment notice given by two party members over paddy procurement.
The BJP members trooped into the well of the House and started shouting anti-government slogans.
They created ruckus over the same issue in Legislative Council also after Zero Hour forcing adjournment of the Upper House till 2:30 PM.

Yadav said that despite Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's assurance to the House on March 12 that the government was ready of have any discussion on the issue, no decision has been taken to schedule the discussion so far which reflects that the assurance was "empty".
"While the CM is sitting on 24-hour protest fast over Land Acquisition Bill of the Centre, it has no intention to fix a discussion on slow pace of paddy procurement in the state due to which farmers are in distress," the opposition leader said.

"In order to divert attention from farmers' anger on this count, the CM sat on fast," he alleged.

The CM was not in the House when pandemonium prevailed.
When all persuasions for return of normalcy by the Chair failed, the Speaker first ordered adjournment till 12 O'clock and later till 2 PM.
Yadav later told reporters outside the House that against a target to procure 30 lakh tonne of paddy by March 31, only 8.98 lakh tonne has been purchased so far till March 15, 2015.
He further said that despite announcement of payment of Rs 300 bonus per quintal, the government has so far not even withdrawn Rs 500 crore from state treasury for the same.
The Opposition leader alleged that the state government has asked State Food Corporation (SFC) not to procure paddy due to which the farmers were selling their grains in distress at a much lower price of Rs 1,000-1,100 per quintal against the rate of Rs 1,660 per quintal fixed by the government.