Bihar’s agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh has put his own department in the dock, saying it was running on fudged data and there was pervasive corruption in paddy procurement and sale of seeds and fertilisers.
“Being the minister of agriculture department, you can call me Choron Ka Sardar (leader of thieves),” Singh said at a public gathering at Chand in Kaimur district on Sunday, a video clip of which has begun circulating on social media.
The minister vowed to check the malpractices and asked people to hit the street in protest if he failed.
Singh’s outburst came after hundreds of farmers present at his felicitation function complained about corruption and mismanagement in paddy procurement, sale of seeds, fertilizer distribution and grant of diesel subsidy by his department.
The minister said Bihar was suffering from the biggest drought of the last 100 years but officials were misleading the government with fake reports.
“I visited Jamui and Munger districts and saw they were facing drought due to scanty rainfall, but officials are reporting about good rains, good paddy transplant and greenery all over. Similarly, no farmer purchased seeds from Bihar Rajya Beej Nigam Limited because of lack of faith on its quality, but the corporation was running on paper statistics,” Singh, who is from Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Party (RJD), said.
He said that farmers were forced to buy pesticides and other chemicals on each bag of subsidized fertilizer.
Singh warned agriculture officials of stringent action if they did not change the wrong practices and work in the interest of farmers.
