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Bhubaneswar: The Odisha unit of the Congress party Sunday blamed the state government for playing with the fortunes of the farmers and adding to their woes by shutting down mandis before the scheduled time.
Talking to the media, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik said that under such circumstances, the farmers would be forced to go for distress sale and can even go to the extent of committing suicides. He also accused the state government of backtracking on its commitments to the farmers.
“The state promised to procure 55 lakh tonnes of paddy in the 2018-19 Kharif season, but till date only around 50 lakh tonnes have been procured. Now the government has decided to close the mandis by February end, two months ahead of the schedule time. In various mandis farmers are still waiting to sell thousands of quintals of paddy,”
The OPCC president also demanded that the Odisha government must purchase the paddy stacked in the mandis, else the Congress party would take to the street in support of the farmers.
Patnaik also took a dig at the BJP-led Union government and the BJD-led state government saying that while the farmers in neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh are selling their paddy to the government at a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of `2,600, farmers in Odisha are selling their produce at almost `1,000 less per quintal due to apathy of the BJP and BJD governments.
“While our farmers are not getting remunerative price for paddy, the government is shutting down the mandis two months ahead of the scheduled time. This is forcing the farmers to go for distress sale. It will worsen their financial situation further and they may even commit suicide. Naveen Patnaik’s government will be solely responsible for such an unfortunate scenario,” Patnaik said.