ગુજરાતી
English
Ahmedabad, September 20, 2025
Allegations of irregularities have surfaced in the state government’s program to procure peanuts and other agricultural crops at the support price. Congress leader Manhar Patel directly accused the government, saying, “There is no intention to provide MSP; this is a great opportunity for BJP leaders to indulge in corruption.”
The government had decided to register farmers at e-Gram centers from September 1 to 15 to sell peanuts, mung beans, buttermilk, and black gram through NAFED at the MSP. This date was later extended to September 22. According to the government, 9.50 lakh farmers have registered online so far, a 200 percent increase compared to last year.
However, according to Dr. Anju Sharma, Additional Secretary of the Agriculture Department, peanuts were not found in the fields of approximately 85,000 farmers registered in the digital crop survey. They were informed of this via SMS. Following this, there is considerable anger among farmers, and the credibility of the survey is being questioned.
The government has clarified that village servants will visit farmers’ fields to conduct physical verification. However, farmers and the opposition have raised several questions:
In how many days will village servants verify 85,000 fields?
How is in-field verification possible when harvesting is complete in September?
On what basis were the figures for peanut cultivation on 2.2 million hectares declared?
When crop details are maintained in every village’s Talati Pani Patraat, why is the expense of a digital survey necessary?
Manhar Patel said, “The government doesn’t trust its own system, so it has resorted to digital surveys and SMS to fool farmers. This clearly shows that it has no intention of providing MSP.”
