Elections over, so no appetite for paddy

‘‘For three years, the state did all the buying. This has caused a loss of Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer. The question before us is whether to run the government or just buy paddy,’’ the CM is said to have written.

Chhattisgarh — the rice-bowl of India — perhaps is the only government to have bought paddy directly from farmers. Earlier, the NDA government had refused to support Ajit Jogi, who had staged a dharna outside the PM’s residence to demand paddy procurement by the FCI.

As help came from the Centre, Jogi went ahead with the procurements, raising Rs 1,800 crore from the RBI. In the past four years, Chhattisgarh has purchased over 65 lakh tonnes paddy, raising loans to the tune of Rs 3,927 crore from the RBI. It has been able to repay Rs 1,622 crore, including Rs 340 crore as interest. If the government decides to buy paddy this year, it has to raise a loan of Rs 1,000 crore.

However, mounting debt liabilities is perhaps not the only reason that compelled Raman Singh to throw his arms, especially at a time when there was a change of guard at the Centre.

He has several other liabilities, like free distribution of cows to six lakh tribal families, provision of iodised salt at 25 paisa per kg to 18 lakh families below poverty line, unemployment allowance to jobless youths and a new Rs 101-crore package for urban bodies.

‘‘We want the Centre’s help. But that doesn’t mean the government is abdicating its responsibility. It’s also not a final decision”, he said, in response to charges levelled by the Congress that the government had an anti-farmer attitude.

In the letter, the CM is understood to have apprised the PM of the growing burden on the state exchequer and the problem of handling paddy, already procured from farmers. With no storage facility in the state, over 11 lakh tonnes of paddy is still lying in the open. ‘‘Rains will further increase our losses,’’ a senior official says.

But Jogi, when asked, takes pride in having taken the decision. ‘‘Which other CM has had the courage to sustain a loss of such a magnitude?,’’ he asks and adds: ‘‘Only Jogi had such a large heart to bail out poor farmers.”