With only a few months left for the General Election, the Odisha Assembly today witnessed a stiff competition between MLAs belonging to the opposition Congress and the ruling BJD to champion the causes of farmers.
The Congress gave a notice for a debate on the distress sale of paddy in western districts, prompting the treasury bench members to raise another farmers-related issue during the Zero Hour before the opposition could get an opportunity to voice their protest.
Senior BJD MLA and former Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy raised the issue of Phailin-hit farmers not getting adequate seeds for Rabi crop. "I am a farmer and not getting seeds to start cultivation," Maharathy said, urging Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat to ask the minister concerned to give a reply on the matter.
"The farmers have lost their crop due to cyclone Phailin and resultant floods and rains. Therefore, Rabi crop is the only alternative available to them. However, farmers are not getting seeds to start farming," said former Finance Minister and senior BJd MLA Prafulla Ghadai.
Maharathy and Ghadai got support of many members from the treasury bench who alleged that farmers were left at the mercy of the nature.
The opposition members, during the debate, alleged that the state government has utterly failed to open adequate number of "mandis" leading to distress sale of paddy in western districts. As the farmers of western Odisha have already harvested their paddy crop, they are not able to get the minimum support price on their product due to lack of "mandis', said Congress MLA Anup Sai.
Sai said the farmers are forced to sell paddy at Rs 800 to Rs 900 per quintal against the Centre-fixed minimum support price (MSP) of over Rs 1,300. "This has happened because of non-opening of mandis by the government," he added.
Congress members including leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh, Prafulla Majhi, Rajendra Chhatria, Santosh Singh Saluja, BJP MLA Jaynarayan Mishra and Independent MLA Pratap Sarangi criticised the state government for not opening adequate mandis for paddy procurement.
