Unseasonal continuous rains which lasted for more than 48 hours lashed several parts of Chhattisgarh, it has also broken the records of the last 100 years and has made severe damages to the paddy crops and the paddy procured at the collection centres.
It has been estimated that lakhs of a quintal of farmer’s paddy were badly dampened and damaged by incessant rains. The opposition held that the inadequate arrangement at the paddy centres is because of faulty government decisions.
It has been estimated that between December 1 to 29, the state government procured 53 lakh tons of paddy against its set target of 105 lakh tons of paddy. However, out of 53 lakh tons of procured paddy, only 15 lakh tons of paddy were sent for milling and safe storage, rest stocks remained unprotected in the open at several procurement centres.
Despite, on Wednesday, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel instructed the officials to make proper arrangements to store the procured paddy safely, rains caused severe damage to these centres across the state including Bathena, which falls in CM Baghel’s constituency Patan. Several farmers complained they are at a huge loss due to rains and hailstorms.
AAP State President Komal Hupendi questioned, “when the weather forecast reports were flagging warning about the rains then why proper arrangements were not made at the centres, why government machinery is waiting for CM’s orders?"
While the BJP questioned that "the state government is aware that its 1,300 godowns (storage houses) can only store 24 lakh tons of paddy, then why has the government not increased the number of godowns by renting?"
As per available information received, in 2019-20, rains damaged 80 thousand quintals of paddy worth Rs 590 crores. The cost of construction of a storage house of capacity 10,000 quintals is Rs 2 crore.
Former Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh alleged that in the last three years, paddy worth Rs 4,000 crore had been damaged due to mismanagement and plagued the vision of the Baghel. government.
In this case, CM Baghel already instructed the officers to carry out a state-level survey and table the crop damage report as quickly.
