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Niranjan Takle
Niranjan Takle

Prithviraj Chavan seeks CBI probe into toor procurement scam

toor-dal Representational image | via Commons

Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan sought a CBI probe into the alleged toor procurement scam in the state.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis had, on 30 April, 2017, admitted that a Rs 400 crore toor procurement scam had taken place in the state.

The first stage of the procurement was to be done by April 22, but toor was not collected from farmers, citing frivolous reasons such as shortage of gunny bags, faulty weighing scale and shortage of storage space.

The procurement was to happen at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,050 per quintal, but the farmers had to sell it at Rs 3,500 a quintal. “This happened because farmers had lined up at the procurement centers with their produce in hired tractor trolleys or trucks and couldn't wait for days for the procurement to restart,” said Rajan Kshirsagar, a farmer activist from Parbhani. He added that the traders who bought toor at Rs 3,500 a quintal sold it to the government for Rs 5,050 and made huge profits in connivance with the officials.

Chavan said, “State government announced in September 2016 that toor production will be 12.56 lakh tonnes. Economic survey estimated it at 11.71 lakh tonne in March, 2017. State government informed the Centre on April 5 that toor production is 20.35 lakh tonne.” The production figure increased by almost nine lakh tonne within 22 days.

Pointing out that land in which toor was cultivated increased by 25 per cent when compared to the previous year, he said, “How could the produce increased by 500 per cent as compared to the last year?” He further said the government has so far procured four lakh tonnes till April 22, and later another one lakh besides one lakh procured by the Centre under price support scheme, adding, “This shows that six lakh tonne is procured by the governments and 5 lakh tonne has got sold in the APMCs. Over 9 lakh tonne toor is still with the farmers. Who will buy that?” He reminded that the chief minister had promised to purchase the entire yield of toor till the last grain.

Prime Minister Modi signed an agreement with Mozambique in 2016 to purchase toor or pigeon peas for five years. According to the agreement, a copy of which is available with THE WEEK, Mozambique supplied 100,000 tonne toor in 2016-17 and every year, Mozambique will be supplying with an increase of 25,000 tonne. “This year's import of 1,25,000 tonne is already arrived at JNPT. Why did the government agree to import every year even when the domestic yield is five times more?”, he asked.

Details of toor procurement from Jalna district are extremely conspicuous. Only 800 individuals have sold over one lakh tonne of toor in the district. The list of top 800 sellers include Shiv Sena minister Arjun Khotkar. Khotkar sold 377 quintal toor in just two days. “Consider a per acre yield of 2.5 quintal. This means that Khotkar must have produced yield of 377 quintals on 151 acres of agriculture land,” Sachin Sawant, Congress spokesperson said. He added that according to the rural ceiling act, no single individual can hold more than 54 acres of agriculture land in Maharashtra and demanded that all the sales should be probed.

Chavan said, “We demand a CBI inquiry. CM himself has admitted that a scam has happened. We also ask the chief minister to procure every grain of toor at MSP and we want the export ban to be lifted with a hike in import duty of 25 per cent. Farmers who were compelled to sell in distress to traders should be compensated for the MSP.”

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Topics : #Maharashtra

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