Alleging discrepancies in the figures announced by Maharashtra government on production and purchase of tur dal, former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today demanded a CBI probe into the issue.
Addressing reporters here, he said that in 2015, the state government announced that tur was cultivated on 12.37 hectare of area while tur production was 4.44 lakh tonne.
"This year the government in the legislative assembly announced 11.71 lakh tonne tur has been produced against the estimated 12.56 lakh tonne," Chavan said, while addressing reporters here.
"A month later, in April the government records show that the production has gone up by 5 times, which is, over 20 lakh tonnes. There is a definite manipulation in figures," Chavan claimed.
He claimed that the Centre's decision to import one lakh tonnes of tur added to the confusion.
"Has the state government mixed the imported tur dal with the production of Maharashtra? How can the government's statistics department not get the exact figure? They have indulged in manipulation of figures," Chavan said.
"We demand a CBI inquiry into this manipulation as well as its purchase issue," he added.
He further demanded that customs duty should be hiked up to 25 per cent from current 10 per cent on import of tur and the ban on the export of commodity should be lifted for the time being.
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