Raipur: Cowdung procurement by Bhupesh Baghel government become matter of heated discussion between opposition BJP MLAs and ruling party Congress MLAs in Chhattisgarh State Assembly during question hour on Friday, when BJP MLA Saurabh Singh accused that it is a bigger scam than Lalu’s Fodder scam in Bihar. The Opposition accused a scam of ₹229 crore occurred in dung procurement under Godhan Nyay Yojana.
While answering the question of Leader of Opposition Narayan Chandel, the Agriculture Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu mentioned, since January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2023 the government has procured 1.23 lakh quintal of dung and made a payment of ₹24,639 crore to the beneficiaries. The self-help groups associated with the scheme sold out products made of dung worth ₹17 crore.
MLA Saurabh Singh who was disappointed by the Agriculture Minister’s answers, quizzed him on what happened to the rest of the cow dung purchased at a cost of ₹229 crores.
The cowdung scam
After the Minister failed to give satisfactory answers, along with Saurabh Singh and rest of BJP MLAs accused massive fraud occurred in the government scheme. They accused the dung scheme in coming days as larger scam than fodder scam occurred in Bihar. They also accused a major portion of hard-earned public money having been siphoned off in the name of Godhan Nyay Yojana and Narwa Garva Ghurva Badi like CM Baghel flagship scheme.
Earlier, the Agriculture Minister informed that since January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2023 the government sanctioned construction of 10,336 Gauthan (cow shed) in the state out of which 10,240 Gauthans were completed.
