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Haryana Assembly budget session: Congress alleges ₹5,000-crore paddy procurement ‘scandal’
The issue found a centre stage in the House through three separate calling attention notices moved by Congress MLAs Ashok Kumar Arora, Bharat Bhushan Batra, Geeta Bhukkal, Shelly Chaudhary, and Aditya Surjewala, besides INLD MLAs Aditya Devi Lal and Arjun Chautala
The eyebrow raising record paddy procurement rocked the Haryana Assembly on Friday with the Opposition accusing the government of presiding over a multi-crore paddy procurement scandal, triggering sharp exchanges in the House.
The principal opposition party, the Congress, alleged that the irregularities began from the “Meri Fasal–Mera Byora” portal and extended up to rice mills. The Congress legislators claimed that rice millers, commission agents, transport contractors and certain government officials with political patronage were hand in glove and executed what the party said was a “ ₹5,000 crore paddy scam”.
The issue found a centre stage in the House through three separate calling attention notices moved by Congress MLAs Ashok Kumar Arora, Bharat Bhushan Batra, Geeta Bhukkal, Shelly Chaudhary, and Aditya Surjewala, besides INLD MLAs Aditya Devi Lal and Arjun Chautala.
“The strongest proof of this scam is that in a year when the crops were damaged and yield declined, the paddy procurement figures of the government are record breaking...Where has this paddy come from? Obviously, from other states...Outside paddy was sold at minimum support price (MSP) and our own farmers were left standing outside the mandis,” Surjewala said in his separate calling attention notice.
In their joint notice, Congress MLAs Arora, Batra, Bhukkal and Chaudhary demanded CBI probe and alleged that fake gate passes were generated at grain markets and that cheaper paddy was brought in from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and shown as locally procured produce of Haryana farmers using forged documentation.
Allegations factually incorrect, misleading, says CM Saini
Chief minister Nayab Singh Saini admitted that there were certain shortcomings, but strict action was being taken against all those responsible for the irregularities. “We took action as soon as we found the shortcomings and we are further strengthening the procurement system,” Saini said, dismissing the Opposition’s allegation of a ₹5,000 crore scam in paddy procurement as factually incorrect and misleading.
He said so far 12 FIRs had been registered and of the total 75 government officials chargesheeted, and 28 officials have been suspended. He said that ₹6.37 crore fine was also recovered from the rice millers.
Saini said that to plug the loopholes, ahead of 2026-27 paddy procurement season, e-procurement portal is being upgraded. He said from the upcoming rabi and kharif marketing seasons 2026–27, range of technology-driven measures will be introduced, including geo-tagged gate passes, automatic number plate recognition for vehicles, geo-fencing of mandis, warehouses and rice mills, and installation of CCTV cameras at entry and exit points.
The CM said that provisions such as biometric verification of farmers and physical inspections through a mobile application will be implemented. “Physical verification will now be conducted within the geo-fenced framework to ensure that designated officials carry out inspections on-site,” he added. He further informed that on December 11, 2025, the per-acre yield limit was revised to ensure better alignment between actual production and procurement data.
During the kharif procurement season, over 62 lakh metric tonne non-basmati paddy was procured from over three lakh farmers by the state procurement agencies at MSP and transferred over ₹14,793 crore as MSP to the bank accounts of farmers.
