Mumbai: Alleging a scam of over ₹400 crore in procurement of tur , former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into it.
“ Tur was imported from Mozambique, Myanmar, and Karnataka, which was sold in Maharashtra. The government purchased it from traders under the guise of farmers. It should be probed,” Mr. Chavan said at a press conference in the legislature building.
“In September 2016, the government estimated the production of tur at 12.56 lakh metric tonne. In March 2017, the government declared their revised estimates at 11.71 lakh metric tonne. In April 2016, the State informed the Centre that the production of tur would be 20.35 lakh metric tonne.”
“Now the question is how much was the actual production and how much was purchased by the State. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently said that there is corruption in tur purchase. At what level the corruption had occurred,” asked Mr. Chavan.
The former Chief Minister also said that the Indian government had inked an agreement with the Mozambique government over tur import. “Estimates of procured tur increased as the imported tur reached Indian ports. This needs to be investigated. We suspect that there could have been an attempt to mix the imported tur with the Indian tur .”
Mr. Chavan also called for the import duty on tur to be increased to 25% from 10%. “All bilateral ties for tur imports shall be cancelled to give justice to Indian farmers.” Last week, The Hindu had reported that despite the CM confirming a scam in tur procurement, no probe has been ordered.
