New Delhi: Cautioning over countrywide farmers’ agitations, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Prasanna Acharya Friday urged the Union government to start procuring parboiled rice from Odisha and other states and not create more problems for farmers.
Speaking during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the senior BJD MP said that the surplus parboiled rice in Odisha this year will be of around 28 lakh tonnes. He informed the House that earlier, the Food Corporation of India was procuring all the surplus rice from states like Odisha and Telangana among others. The BJD MP said the Union government has given directives that not a single grain of parboiled rice will be procured from Odisha.
“When the entire country is in turmoil and farmers are agitating over their problems, you are adding another problem for them. If you are not going to procure parboiled rice, should we throw all our surplus rice into the Bay of Bengal?” asked the BJD MP.
He also reminded the government that the Union Food and Civil Supplies minister had given assurance in February that all surplus parboiled rice from Odisha will be procured by the Centre.
“Unfortunately the Union government has taken a U-turn. This is going to hamper the procurement severely. We are going to face a cyclone. There is every possibility of heavy rain in the next 2-3 days. The rice and paddy is in the field. So, it is going to hamper the interest of the farmers and put the state government in turmoil,” Acharya added.
He requested the Union government to change its order to help the farmers of Odisha, Telangana and other states.
