Raipur, Dec 15 (PTI) A remark made by Chhattisgarh Food and Civil Supplies Minister Amarjeet Bhagat against former chief minister and senior BJP MLA Raman Singh Singh on Wednesday in the state Assembly created a ruckus with the opposition members demanding his apology.

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The BJP legislators later refused to participate in any discussion on the subjects related to the departments handled by Bhagat following his remark, which was later expunged.

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Replying to a question asked by Raman Singh on paddy procurement policy of the state government during the Question Hour, Bhagat passed the remark about him, prompting the BJP members to create an uproar in the House terming it as objectionable.

However, Bhagat later expressed regret over the statement.

Raking up the issue of paddy procurement and lifting of paddy from procurement centres, Singh claimed that paddy worth crores of rupees got spoilt due to the wrong policy of the state government in the previous kharif marketing season (2020-21) and it was a national loss.

The same mistakes are being repeated this year too, he claimed.

To this, Bhagat said, it is known to everyone that there were problems in transportation of paddy due to pandemic (COVID-19) and delay in granting permission from Centre (for accepting rice from the state).

The minister also alleged that during the 15-year term of Raman Singh as CM, he did not do anything for farmers.

Later, Singh that said due to unclear paddy procurement policy of the state government (in 2020-21), it had to auction 8.97 lakh metric yonnes (LMT) of paddy (in open market) and asked about the loss caused to the state in the auctioning process.

The minister replied that the state government suffered a loss of Rs 554 crore. Singh contested it and claimed the loss was of over Rs 900 crore.

The losses could have been avoided had the state government properly managed the storage and transportation system, Singh said, demanding to probe the issue by constituting a committee of the House.

Subsequently, Bhagat made a remark against Singh. Infuriated over it, the BJP members including Leader of Opposition in Dharamlal Kaushik, Ajay Chandrakar, Shivratan Sharma, said such kind of words should not be used in the House. They trooped into the well of the House and were automatically suspended as per the assembly rules.

Speaker Charan Das Mahant expunged the remark from the proceedings of the House. Even after this, the BJP MLAs did not agree and sought apology from Bhagat.

Subsequently, on the direction of the speaker, Bhagat expressed regret for his remark. Later, the Speaker revoked the suspension of the BJP MLAs.

Chandrakar said the BJP legislators would not participate in any discussion on the subjects related to the departments handled by Bhagat in the question hour.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)