Baghel hits back at ED’s allegations on Chhattisgarh’s ‘rice milling scam’

CM Baghel dismisses ED's allegation of ₹175 crore bribe in Chhattisgarh's custom rice milling scam. He claims ED released false figures to defame Congress govt. He also blames BJP's former CM Raman Singh for not milling 60-70 lakh tonnes of paddy during his tenure & saving ₹2,000 crore with new system.

A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that a “custom rice milling special incentive scam” in Chhattisgarh had generated ₹175 crore bribes for the “benefit of higher powers”, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel dismissed the allegation. In a post on social media platform X, Mr. Baghel said the ED had released false figures so that the BJP could defame the Congress government of the State.

“The ED has once again given an election issue to the BJP by making fabricated allegations. This time, at the behest of Amit Shah, it is talking about the rice scam,” Mr. Baghel said in his post. 

The allegation pertains to a special incentive the State pays to the rice millers for custom milling paddy. This incentive, an ED statement has said, was “exorbitantly” increased from ₹40 to ₹120 per quintal, and then “payments were released worth ₹500 Crore, generating kickbacks of ₹175 Crore”.

Mr. Baghel countered that the charges for custom milling had been increased from 2022-23 itself, “... that is, only one year’s payment has been made, so where does the account of four years of scams come from?” the post read. 

“The ED has taken statements from 10-12 rice millers and has estimated that if the agency records the statements of 2,200 millers then it can talk about any figures. Do not release figures to defame the government,” he said of the Central agency’s estimates. 

Mr. Baghel also targeted his predecessor, former BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh, saying he (Mr. Singh) had been Chief Minister for 15 years “but it is clear from his statement that he still has no idea about the work”.

“When Raman Singh was the head of the state, even 60-70 lakh tonnes of paddy purchased from farmers every year could not be milled. There was a loss of hundreds of crores every year due to drought, theft, interest, maintenance of collection centres and spoilage of paddy. They will not tell the public that after the introduction of the new system of custom milling, 97 lakh tonnes of paddy was lifted before the rainy season and the state has saved ₹2,000 crore,” Mr. Baghel posted further on X.