Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Pradesh Kisan Congress (OPKC) has demanded that both the state and Central governments, helmed by the BJP, immediately roll back the verification and procurement procedures in paddy procurement, calling those ‘complicated’ and ‘confusing’, and introduce a farmer-friendly model instead.
“The process of e-KYC, token generation, and verification of land ownership through family lineage documents, as set by the state government for accessing subsidies, paddy procurement benefits, and other agricultural support, is confusing.
Such digitally driven systems are too complicated for Odisha’s largely uneducated farming population,” said state Kisan Congress chairman Abhay Sahu.
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Addressing a press conference at the Congress Bhawan here Thursday, Sahu said, along with the above modifications, the governments of the day must stop favouring corporate lobbies and mill owners, as it is causing agrarian distress at present.
Quoting excerpts from a report prepared by the fact-finding team of the Kisan Kisan Congress, which visited various agriculture-intensive districts in western and coastal Odisha recently, Sahu said that despite a seemingly favourable monsoon this year, farmers are facing immense hardship due to both natural calamities and systemic failures.
“While incessant floods in Subarnarekha, Jalaka, and Budhabalanga rivers have left waterlogged paddy fields in Balasore, causing seedlings to rot and disruption of transplanting activities, parts of Bolangir and Nuapada are facing drought-like conditions.
In many areas, the sowing process is severely delayed due to a lack of rainfall,” he said.
At the presser, the Kisan Congress put forth a list of demands before the government including – direct procurement of paddy from farmers without the involvement of middlemen or digital hurdles, establishment of cold storage facilities in every block, a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 for farmers aged 55 and above, and comprehensive health insurance coverage for the entire farming household not limited to just crop insurance.
Meanwhile, Sahu warned that if the government failed to address these demands, the Kisan Congress would resort to state-wide agitations.
“If the government continues to ignore the plight of farmers, the Kisan Congress will initiate a phased statewide agitation from the last week of October,” said Sahu.
PNN