Cong targets C'garh govt over paddy storage facilities

Congress today accused the state government of failing to ensure proper storage facilities at paddy procurement centres, saying that a substantial portion of the crop got damaged in rains as it was kept in the open.
The Opposition also termed it as a "conspiracy" to cover up alleged wrongdoings in the paddy procurement.
"Around 22 lakh tonnes of paddy kept in the open at different procurement centres, got damaged in the recent rains. The state government willingly left the paddy to rot in the rain to cover up its irregularities in procurement," PCC chief Bhupesh Baghel said in a statement today.

It is unfortunate that the state government is yet to disburse the bonus of Rs 3,880 crore to farmers for their paddy while the cost of rotten paddy stocks has crossed Rs 4,000 crore, he said.
Despite making tall claims of having ensured proper arrangement to store paddy at procurement centres, the level of damage could not be prevented, he said.
"Polythene and other kind of covers worth crore of rupees were bought to save paddy from natural calamities. But it seems that the arrangements were not sufficient," he said.
Questioning state government preparedness, he said that the state government had failed to draft an action plan to deal with such a situation.