Bhubaneswar: Protesting the Central hike of `80 in minimum support price (MSP) of paddy, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is set to launch its week long block-level protests across state from Monday.
The farmers’ cell of the party—BJD Krushak Sammukhya—will lead the demonstrations and will submit memos to the Block Development Officers (BDOs); addressed to the President for hiking the paddy-MSP.
The convener of the farmer’s cell Sushant Singh said “The Central government hasn’t kept its promise on MSP-hike and the paltry-hike has left the farming community in dismay.”
He claimed that the state government had taken various steps for doubling farmers’ income saying “Orissa has enhanced its budget allocation in farm sector from `7,000 crore in 2013-14 to `14,900 crore in the current fiscal.”
The state assembly panel in its last session had unanimously decided to fix the paddy-MSP at `2930 and it was to submit a memo to the Prime Minister (PM) in this regard. Singh said the panel was unable to meet the PM as the PM’s office didn’t schedule any date for a meet with the panel. BJD has asked all its MPs, MLAs, office bearers, leaders and activists to join these protest rallies which will be organised in a phased manner in every block from July 10 to 18.
Notably, the Union Agriculture Ministry announced its decision on paddy MSP and proposed to increase it from `1,470 to `1,550 per quintal last month. However, the ruling BJD here has been alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its 2014 election manifesto, had assured to increase the MSP of paddy by one and a half time of the production cost.
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