Congress’s winning card in Chhattisgarh could be its paddy bonus scheme

The standing joke in poll-bound Chhattisgarh is that the Congress government’s paddy procurement rates are so attractive that even former chief minister and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Raman Singh has been selling his produce to the state the last five years.

In Singh’s native village of Rampur in the state’s Kabirdhforam district – earlier called Thathapur – paddy farmer Tularam Dhruv, however, was not amused when I recounted the gag. “What is wrong with that?” he demanded. “Is he not a farmer from the state too?”

But Dhruv softened up soon enough. “Kisan ka hit toh hua hai Baghel sarkar mein – farmers have certainly benefited under Baghel,” he said, referring to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. “There is no point lying about that.”

A ‘bonus’ makes farmers happy

Ever since it came to power in 2018, the Baghel government has plied paddy farmers with a bonus of Rs 600 per quintal over and above the Centre-mandated minimum support price for the crop, making this the highest price paid for paddy by any government in India. Paid in the form of an input subsidy, the bonus comes to Rs 9,000 per acre, since the state is committed to buying 15 quintals of paddy per acre. Even...

Read more