Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Farmers' anger over the procurement of moong (green gram) has reached the boiling point. The procurement of moong began on July 1. The farmers' organisations have demanded 100% procurement of moong ever since.
The state government has put up a condition of the central government's guidelines. It says the state can procure only 25% of the produce and only 40 quintals a day.
The centre and the state started putting the ball in each other's court. State Agriculture Minister Aidal Singh Kanshana wrote to his central counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the third time on Tuesday, requesting him to increase the target limit for procurement of moong.
On the other hand, Chouhan dashed off a letter to Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on July 23, advising him to achieve the goal set by the centre.
The centre gave the target for procuring 4.55 lakh metric tonnes of moong. In his letter, Kanshana said the production of moong in the state might go up to 20 lakh metric tonnes, and the state should get the target for procurement of 40% of the crop, which means 8.06 lakh metric tonnes.
Chouhan has already written to Yadav that the state failed to achieve the target set by the centre.
According to Chouhan's letter, the government has achieved only 2% of the target until July 16.
Once the state government achieves the target, the centre will mull over the fresh target, he wrote.
Because the centre and the state started passing the buck to each other, the farmers' fury deepened.
