The government today attacked Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan for his comment on the implementation of Food law in Bihar and asked him to stop picking fault with the state.
"How long will you continue to befool the people of Bihar by giving confusing statements?" state food minister Shyam Rajak said.
"Since he is wearing the spectacles of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he is only seeing fault in Bihar and nowhere else," he said in a statement.
Union Food Minister Paswan on March 21 slammed Bihar government for alleged sloppy pace of paddy procurement despite twice extending the deadline by the Centre and had said if Nitish Kumar ministry was "incompetent" to do so, the FCI was ready to step in.
He also said the government had failed to provide the list of 1.11 crore beneficiaries left out of subsidised ration under the Food law.
"He is shedding crocodiles tears for the state government leaving out 1.11 crore beneficiaries from the Food law, but the fact is the state government submitted a list of 49.74 lakh additional beneficiaries and sought extra allotment of 9,948.21 metric tonnes of wheat and 14,922.32 metric tonnes of rice in the December last year itself," Rajak said.
"I had discussed with the Union Minister that the extra allotment has not come to Bihar, during the meeting of the national consumer council in February this year," he said.
Attacking Paswan for his comments regarding alleged sloppy pace of paddy procurement, Rajak said the Centre had to make available a sum of Rs 1,264.10 crore as an advance for paddy procurement, which has not come till date.
Due to which the state government had to carry out the purchase from its limited resources, he said.
"The Centre had given target to acquire only 20 lakh tonnes of paddy, but the state government, in the benefit of farmers, extended the target to 30 lakh tonnes," Rajak said.
The Bihar minister alleged though the Centre knew about prevalence of moist during the months of December and January, it fixed the deadline of March-end for procurement of paddy.
Rajak added despite of all odds the state government has procured 15 lakh tonnes of paddy till date, which was far more than the previous years.
