Morbi:

NAFED Chairman Vaghji Boda has expressed regrets for his statements regarding groundnut purchase scam in Gujarat and apologized for that and also resigned from Congress party.

Congress spokesperson in Gujarat Manish Doshi confirmed that Boda has tendered his resignation from the party.

Boda today said that his statement in the Tankara Taluka Congress executive meet about the groundnut purchase issue and soil mixing case was not in good taste and has caused damage to the image of NAFED, which was a pan India cooperative organization.

He said, ‘It was my mistake and I apologize for that. I have resigned from Congress and all the related posts. I should not have given such a statement which was not befitting for the post of the Chairman of NAFED.’
Notably a war of words and allegations and counter allegations had taken place between Boda,and the BJP government in Gujarat over the alleged groundnut procurement scam.

While Boda during the meeting of Tankara Taluka Congress executive body recently had said that the Agriculture Minister R C Faldu is making allegations against NAFED but he has was ignorant about the process of procurement as NAFED was only given the work of procurement of groundnut. He said that the government should probe it. He also alleged that due to differences between CM Vijay Rupani and GUJCOMASOL chairman (Dilip Sanghani) the loss making societies were given the work of purchase of groundnut. State agency GUJCOT was given 805 procurement work. He also claimed that corruption has taken places during purchase of groundnut by societies in Porbandar, Kutiyana, Gondal and Jamnagar etc. He said that if the government shows even a single such case in his area of Morbi Tankara then he would resign from public life. He said that the government and its ministers were talking nonsense and like ignorant ones. The Agriculture minister claimed that NAFED was responsible for the whole matter and if it was true then the government should take action against NAFED.
‘We demand investigation in to the whole matter. NAFED’s job is to do the procurement only and taking a service charge for it and nothing else,’ he had said.

Countering his allegations, Deputy CM Nitin Patel said that what NAFED chairman had said was hurting. ‘The duty of NAFED of is not only to procure the groundnut with the money provided by the central government but to do other related duties including its safe placement and monitoring and sell at a better price. What the NAFED chairman has said on the dais of a Congress event has made things clear for public also. So far no NAFED official has made any complaint at his own,’ he had said. BJP state president Jeetu Vaghani had also lashed out at Boda for his statement.

DeshGujarat