Maharashtra government to take action against traders selling imported tur at procurement centres

PUNE: The central government is not too sure whether the tur dal sold at the procurement centres in Maharashtra was actually cultivated in the state. They suspect that traders are selling cheap, imported tur dal at these centres, making a handsome profit.

To counter this, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that his government will use satellite images to track whether the farmer, under whose name the transaction was done, had really planted tur on an area equivalent to the amount of the grain he sold.

He has also requested the Centre to increase import duty on tur from 10% to 25% to discourage cheap tur imports.

Farmer leader Raju Shetty alleged that, “We have received evidence from farmers that government agencies Nafed and FCI were selling tur at Rs 3,700-4,200 quintal to traders and these traders re-routed the same tur back to Nafed at Rs 5,050 quintal. This has led to fall in prices of tur.“

Fadnavis had announced the allocation of Rs 1,000 crore to procure about 1 lakh quintal tur that was registered at various centres on April 22 for sale. This was because the central government's procurement programme ended on April 22 and Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan refused to give further extension as he suspected misuse by traders. “Considering the normal time as to when harvest gets over, tur procurement from farmers should have been over by March end,“ said Fadnavis. “We will take criminal action against traders who have misused the government procurement facility,“ he added.

“With the same scheme, the earlier government purchased only 20,000 tonne tur. But we have purchased 4 lakh tonne of tur, which is more than the total tur purchased during the past 10 years,“ said Fadnavis.

Of the 11 lakh quintal tur procured in the country, Maharash tra has procured 4 lakh quintal, which is the high est in India. “With procurement of another 1 lakh quintal that was brought by farmers till April 22, Maharashtra's share in the country's total tur procurement will go up to 45%,“ he added.