Ganesh Mishra – Bijapur. Former Forest Minister Mahesh Gagda has targeted the state government for the purchase of tendu leaves in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. Mr. Gagda alleged that three lakh tribal tendu leaf collectors are missing from the state. Either the government is hiding the figures, or else the government should answer that where are those three lakh collectors?
Mr. Gagda said that this year, the collectors have been caused a loss of crores by purchasing less than four lakh standard gunny bags in the entire state. Accusing the government, he said that a loss of Rs 746.31 crore has been caused to the collectors by purchasing sub-standard tendupata bags in the last four years in the entire state.
Shri Gagda also targeted Bijapur MLA Vikram Mandavi. He said that the MLAs are distributing money to the collectors by acting as whistleblowers, but will the MLAs compensate for the loss of 32 crores incurred by Bijapur in the purchase of Tendupatta this year.
State 13 lakh collectors
Gagda said that the official figure of Tendupatta collectors in the entire state is more than 13 lakh whereas this year the government has told to distribute the amount to 10 lakh collectors. So where are the 3 lakh collectors?
