Cong stages walkout in MP Assembly over onion farmers' issues

Congress legislators today staged a walkout from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly demanding that the state government should clear the dues of the onion farmers and provide better facilities for storing their produce.
The issue was raised by Congress members Jaivardhan Singh and Ramniwas Rawat through a calling attention motion, in which they said the state government purchased onions worth Rs 100 crore at a cost of Rs 6 per kg from June 6 to June 30 through Markfed (Marketing Federation).
"The onions were not stored as per prescribed norms and dumped in the warehouses, where they turned rotten," Jaivardhan claimed.

Alleging corruption in purchase of onions, he claimed that in Sarangpur and Biora towns of Rajgarh district, the government purchased 55,000 quintals of onion from over 1,000 farmers, but "did not pay them".
He also alleged that the government has "cheated" farmers by announcing on July 20 that it will sell the stored onions at Rs 3 per kg, while its price in the open market is Rs 10 per kg.
Replying on the issue, Minister of State for Cooperatives (independent charge), Vishwas Sarang refuted all charges saying Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was lauded at the national level for intervening on the issue as the farmers were in distress because of bumper produce and decided to purchase onions at Rs 6 per kg.

On the allegations regarding corruption in Biora and Sarangpur towns, he said between June 4 and 30, 12,220.24 MT onion was purchased from 2,627 farmers at Rs 6 per kg. The total collection was Rs 7.33 crore.

"So far, payment of Rs 2.85 crore has been made to 1,069 farmers in Biora and Sarangpur towns of Rajgarh district," Sarang said.
Denying any "wrongdoing" in its storage, the minister said at the state level a total of 1,04,026.19 MT onion worth Rs 62.42 crore have been procured.
Guidelines prescribed by the National Horticulture Research and Development Centre, Nashik in storage of onions were completely followed, Sarang said, and also clarified that around 30 per cent crop gets naturally damaged during the storage.

However, dissatisfied with the reply of the minister and amid an uproar, Congress' acting Leader of Opposition termed the government as "anti-farmer" and announced to stage a walkout over the issue.