Congress boycotts Assembly over paddy ‘mismanagement’

Raipur: The opposition Congress on Monday boycotted the proceedings of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, alleging widespread mismanagement in paddy procurement under the BJP-led state govt.Issue was raised during Zero Hour by Leader of the Opposition Charandas Mahant and other Congress MLAs, who moved an adjournment motion seeking a detailed discussion on the procurement process. Opposition claimed that the govt failed to put in place adequate arrangements, causing hardship to farmers across the state. Congress legislators alleged that farmers were facing difficulties in obtaining tokens to sell their paddy. Congress also said procurement was not being carried out from cultivators holding forest rights certificates (FRCs) for land in forest areas. Former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel said the issue was serious and directly affected farmers' livelihoods, warranting an immediate and comprehensive discussion in the House.Speaker Raman Singh permitted a discussion on the admissibility of the adjournment motion. Leading the opposition's charge, Baghel said paddy procurement at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the Kharif marketing year 2025–26 began on November 15 and would continue till January 31, but alleged that the scale of mismanagement this season was unprecedented and had not been seen in the past 25 years.The Congress claimed that unlike previous years, when farmers' data was automatically carried forward, the registration process was now overly complex. As a result, nearly 5% of farmers remained unregistered, while registration of over 4 lakh land records (khasras) was still pending. They also alleged that complicated online registration and token issuance caused severe distress to farmers, citing an alleged suicide attempt by a farmer in Mahasamund after he failed to obtain a token. The opposition further alleged that, based on crop damage (anavari) reports, many cooperative societies were procuring only 12 to 15 quintals of paddy per acre instead of the standard 21 quintals. Discrepancies linked to the AgriStack portal not being updated for 2025–26 were also said to be preventing farmers from selling their full produce.

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