Odisha Congress to launch a statewide stir against anti farmer policy of NDA and BJD government
22 June, Bhubaneswar
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) will launch a massive statewide agitation against the anti-farmer policy of both the BJP led NDA government at the centre and the BJD government in the state, OPCC president Prasad Harichandan announced here Thursday.
Addressing newsmen here, Harichandan said the party would first organise a demonstration in the state capital here after the car festival and then extend it throughout the state. The date and time of the agitation would be finalised later, he said.
He said, the Congress would hit the street as the BJP government despite demand has neither waived the crop loan of farmers nor increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy as demanded.
The OPCC chief said, the BJP in its election manifesto had promised to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy by one and half times of the cost of production but it failed to honour its own promise after coming to power.
He said, the Congress has been demanding to hike the MSP of paddy to Rs 3,000 per quintal and the Odisha State legislative Assembly has also passed an unanimous resolution to raise the MSP of paddy to Rs 2 ,930. The BJP was also a party to the resolution.
But the Union government, the Congress leader said, had hiked the MSP of paddy from Rs 1,470 to Rs 1,550 per quintal against a spending Rs 2,400 by a farmer to produce a quintal of paddy.
Harichandan said, everyday as many as five farmers were committing suicide in Odisha due to crop loss and loan overburden but neither the state government nor the central government has any concern for them.
He alleged that while the central government was waiving the loan of big industrialists and corporate houses, it did not bother to waive the crop loan of poor and marginalised farmers.
The Congress leader said while the Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra governments have already waived the crop loans of small poor farmers, it has not yet been done in Odisha.
Harichandan demanded the central government to waive the crop loan of farmers who have taken loan from the nationalised banks and the state government to waive the crop loan of farmers availed from state cooperative banks.
He said, though Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had demanded the Prime Minister to increase the MSP and waive the crop loan of farmers they were not conceded to by the central government.
The BJP government had betrayed the farmers by hiking the MSP of paddy by only Rs 80 per quintal and not waiving the crop loan of farmers.
Commenting on the BJD’s announcement to fight against the central government on the Mahanadi issue, he said, the fight was only for public consumption to mislead the people.
He said, on the one hand BJD said they would fight against the BJP government at the