Two days after chief minister Vijay Rupani admitted to lapses in procurement of groundnut in the last Kharif season, leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani on Tuesday demanded his resignation. "We have been saying that there was a large scam in groundnut procurement in the state last year. Now, even the chief minister has accepted that there were irregularities in procurement. As head of the government, he should accept moral responsibility for it, and submit his resignation," Dhanani told reporters. In the wake of the irregularities, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) had expressed inability to undertake procurement of pulses and oilseeds in Gujarat in Kharif 2018-19. It cited fire in some of the godowns and adulteration in groundnut stock in at least one godown as among the reasons for the same. It was only after an appeal by the chief minister, and a meeting with chief secretary JN Singh on Monday, that the Federation agreed for procurement. "Imagine the circumstances that the chief minister had to request NAFED for procurement, and also clarify that irregularities wouldn't happen this time," he said. The MLA from Amreli seat demanded that the government order an enquiry by a sitting high court judge in the groundnut scam. He warned that his party would restart protests if the demand was not accepted.

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