Groundnut fires: Gujarat puts blame on Centre

Three incidents in a row of groundnut being gutted in warehouses have left the Gujarat government red-faced.

The opposition cornered the government and BJP leaders on their involvement in irregularity in purchasing groundnuts at minimum support price, but the state government has found the escape route. The state is passing the bucks to the central government and its agency, NAFED, for the incident. It also held the central government responsible for its lethargy in purchasing groundnuts from farmers.

Gujarat agriculture minister RC Faldu wrote to union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh that their agency, NAFED, went fail to take care of the stock of groundnuts purchased from farmers. He wrote that NAFED should have appointed staff for monitoring of quality of groundnuts during purchase, weighing, sealing, transportation and storing. He also wrote Singh that the private warehouses did not make arrangements of security for storage of groundnuts including deploying guards and installation of CCTV and NAFED was responsible for the same. Recently, three incidents reported in Gujarat of lakhs of tons of groundnuts been gutted in mysterious circumstances.

Now, Gujarat wishes that NAFED should make the arrangements to dispose of the groundnuts stored in warehouses so that further damage to stock of oily seeds can be prevented. The state government also informed NAFED that the purchase of lentils, grains and other crops at minimum support price started in Gujarat and there was no space to store as lakhs of tons of groundnuts have been stored there.

WASHING HANDS OFF

Gujarat’s agriculture minister Faldu said, “It is a joint responsibility of NAFED and central government. Gujarat government’s role was that of the facilitator only.”