SODELPA MP Kuridrani has misled the people of Fiji - Reddy

Minister for Agriculture, Doctor Mahendra Reddy states that  SODELPA MP, Inosi Kuridrani has misled the people of Fiji after alleging that a local company owned by a public servant in the ICT  department was given a contract to design the software for the Agriculture Census.

While responding to Doctor Reddy’s ministerial statement in parliament, Kuridrani made the allegation and also questioned Doctor Reddy on how a public servant could be given such a contract.

When Fijivillage spoke to Doctor Reddy outside parliament, he said that the software for the Agriculture Census is from the World Bank.

When we asked Kuridrani to provide proof of his allegation, he said that he won’t make any comments at this stage.

Meanwhile Inosi Kuridrani also called on the government to release data based on ethnicity following the Agriculture Census after confirmation by Doctor Mahendra Reddy that the census is expected to be completed in 3 weeks.

Doctor Reddy says 18,247 out of 71,153 households have been covered after conducting one week out of the 3 weeks nationwide 2020 Agriculture Census.

He says the census coverage for week one is slightly lower of what was targeted.

Doctor Reddy says this is due to some issues faced by the team in getting to maritime areas.

He says these issues are being rectified and the overall census is expected to be completed in 3 weeks.

However Kuridrani claims that the agriculture sector that provides benefits to most of Fiji’s population continues to decline.

Kuridrani says the government is ignoring ethnicity while conducting census. He says what he is asking for is not being racist as government cannot have tailor-made programs to assist the different ethnic communities if they do not have data based on ethnicity.

While responding to Doctor Reddy’s statement, Leader of National Federation Party, Professor Biman Prasad has challenged the Minister for Agriculture and the government to avail the census data in a transparent, usable and understandable manner.

Prasad has also challenged Doctor Reddy to take out politics while collecting data.